One Year Later
by ParisIsBurning
Summary: It's been over a year for the gang. While some things are different, some things never change. Rated T to be safe. COMPLETE!
1. Meet Lily McIntyre

**A/N: Hey guys! **

**Normally, I'm not the type to write fanfics. I prefer my own, original plots :). But I couldn't resist here. I wanted to write in my own OC named Lily, and sort of show what their life is like one year later.  
This first chapter is just an introduction to the new character. I know it's boring but I promise I have a whole plot going. This is just to show where Lily came from.  
This could have potential to be a series after I finish this one, so maybe if you guys like them I'll keep writing them :)  
Okay, I'm done now. Enjoy!**

**XXXXXXXXXX **

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

Caitlin reached for the microwave excitedly and pulled out her experiment. The hot yellow liquid inside each of the five cups was bubbling fiercely. Was that a good sign?

She handed each of her friends in the table below her a cup; her grin was practically ear to ear by now.

"Here guys, try this! I thought of the idea myself!" Caitlin mused as she waited eagerly for her friends to take a sip. If this idea became popular and sales went up, she would certainly get a raise! And just in time for the upcoming sale at Albatross and Finch.

Several long moments of silence passed. Each friend looked at their cup reluctantly and peered inside to see it's bubbling contents. Finally, Jude spoke up.

"Duuuuuuude. This looks like my pee after I drank that entire bottle of ketchup..."

Caitlin scrunched her nose up. "Why did you drink an entire bottle of ketchup? That's disgusting!"

"It was a dare... and he won," Jonesy replied with a defeated look on his face.

"Seriously Cait, what is this?" Jen asked,

"It's hot lemonade! I took normal lemonade and heated it up in the microwave for a minute or so. Try it!"

"Why did you make 'hot lemonade'? No offense but, it kind of sounds....gross." Nikki chimed in while analyzing the contents of her cup.

"Because, it's October, and sales are always down during this time of year. Nobody wants a cold drink when they're already freezing! I figured this way we could keep sales up during the wintertime!"

"Well...maybe you should just stick to the cold drinks. It's not like people aren't buying them, you know." Nikki pushed her drink away, towards Jonesy.

"Oh come on guys, can't you at least try it? I _really_ need this new raise! There's this cute new jacket at Albatross and Finch and I won't be able to buy it at their next sale with my current paycheck! Please?"

"Oh come on guys, maybe it won't be _so_ bad," Jen piped in.

"Yeah, who knows? Maybe it will be the next big thing!" Wyatt added along.

"Oh, okay, fine. I'll try it!" Jonesy announced as he slowly lifted his cup to his mouth. As the warm liquid reached his tongue, his eyes widened in disgust. He proceeded to spit the contents of his mouth all over the table, as well as all over Nikki, who was seated next to him.

"That was..."

"Disgusting?" Caitlin cut him off with a sigh in her voice.

"Pretty much...Sorry Cait. It was a good idea, though."

Nikki wiped the lemon spit off of her shirt. "Ugh, Jonesy, did you have to spit it all over my shirt? This is so gross!"

"You don't seem to mind my spit when it's inside your mouth," Jonesy winked and leaned towards her.

Nikki rolled her eyes and playfully shoved Jonesy. "You can be so gross sometimes, you know that?"

Caitlin giggled slightly. With all the sarcasm and small fights, Caitlin always wondered how they managed to stay together for almost a year. Maybe it was some sort of weird way of showing affection towards each other.

Caitlin let her mind wander further. The word "year" lingered in her head. She couldn't believe it had been over a year since she had first met her best friends. She pictured her same group of friends from a year ago and looked at them now. Things had certainly changed.

Jen had cut her long, red-ish yet brown-ish hair into a sophisticated bob, much like Chrissy's from the Khaki Barn, but more edgy looking. Her face had a sharper look to it, and her body had filled out more. She _finally_ started wearing a bit of eyeliner and mascara, which added to the sophisticated look she was going for. She was still the mature one of the group, but had learned to tone down her controlling attitude a bit. She had become head coach of The Penalty Box after Coach Halder was promoted to a higher position in the franchise. Things were going pretty well for her.

Nikki's hair had grown down all the way to just past her shoulders. She had dyed her hair back to it's original jet black color, but had left the front strands in their signature purple color. She was the same tough, non-conforming type girl, but a slight gentle side was forming to her. At least, that's what Caitlin thought. She was still stuck at her job at the "tacky barn", but deep down she actually liked the job. She got paid to sit around and sleep all day, even if the clones squealed and "eeeee!"d all day.

Jonesy's hair was the same deep blue color, but it had grown out a bit and sort of sat around his eyes. It was almost attractive, oddly enough. One thing hadn't changed though: he _still_ couldn't keep a job for more than a week.

Wyatt still had his poofy hair, of course. He wouldn't be Wyatt without it. However, the rest of him had changed quite a bit. His scrawny body buffed up a little bit and he grew a little taller. While he still had a sensitive side, he had trained himself to toughen up a bit and be more confident when it came to girls. He also got himself out of Burger McFlipsters and landed himself a decent job at Grind Me, his favorite coffee joint.

Caitlin studied Jude a bit, looking for any changes. For the most part, Jude had stayed the same. Same shaggy blonde hair, same odd, immature attitude. She studied a bit harder. The only visible change was the slight stubble on his face. He was too lazy to shave sometimes.

Caitlin pulled out a mirror from her purse and studied her reflection. She had certainly changed as well. Her short blonde hair had finally grown long enough to tie back in a short ponytail. And she was certainly not the same shallow person she had been before she had met them. They had taught her a deeper meaning to life, something she would've never learned if she were still with Tricia.

Caitlin let out a dreamy sigh and turned to her friends.

"Wow guys, can you believe it's been over a year since I befriended you? And look how much we've changed!" Caitlin exclaimed while resting her head on her hand.

The entire group shot her a strange look. Obviously they had been talking about something completely unrelated.

"Whoaaaa... that was just a little random, brah!" Jude replied.

Nikki let out one of her famous snort-snickers. "Yeah, seriously." She looked at her watch. "Ugh, I've gotta jet. The Crappy Barn is calling me."

"I think we all have to go to work. It's almost nine 'o clock. See you at break, Cait!" Wyatt announced as he stood up from his seat. The others nodded, said their goodbyes, and walked away, leaving Caitlin all alone. Time to open up The Lemon.

XXXXXX

Lily McIntyre looked down at the complementary map of the Galleria Mall, and back up at the actual building. Man, this mall was _huge!_ Certainly nothing like the tiny little mall she had back home.

Lily sighed. It would take her awhile to accept the fact that _this_ was now her home. And this mall was where she now worked.

She shivered a bit, and pulled her jacket closer to her body. She looked up at the mall's giant thermometer. It read negative fifteen.

"There's no way it can be _that_ cold!" Lily muttered to herself. "Is that even possible? How do these people survive?"

Lily smacked herself. She had completely forgotten that Canadians used celsius, not fahrenheit. She pulled out her phone and pulled up the little converter. Five fahrenheit. Now that made _much_ more sense.

Lily hurried herself inside. She was already late for her new job.

XXXXXXX

Nikki woke from her rather short nap to find the clones surrounding her, leaning themselves right in Nikki's face.

"GUESSWHATGUESSWHATGUESSWHAT?" They all screamed at once.

Nikki groaned. "Ugh. What?"

"We're getting a new staff member today!" Chrissy announced excitedly.

"Yeah, she just moved here! The old Khaki Barn she worked at transferred her to this location!" Kirsten added.

"I wonder what she's like..." Kristen chimed in.

"I bet she's got totally awesome style!"

"She's probably suuuper pretty!"

"I bet she'll be just like us!"

"Maybe she even _looks_ just like us, too!"

"That would be soooo cool!"

"Cooler than cool! We could all four go on major shopping trips together!"

The three clones began jumping up and down, all while "eeeee!"ing, as usual. Nikki rolled her eyes.

"Hey guys, remember Ashley? Your fourth clone? Are you sure you want somebody exactly like her all over again?" Nikki replied, cutting off their "eeeee"s.

"Ugh, leave it to _Nikki_ to try and rain on our fun!" Chrissy hissed back, practically spitting the word "Nikki".

"Yeah! Let's go out front and wait for her. She could be here any minute!" Kirsten announced. The girls exited the break room, giving Nikki some peace and quiet again.

XXXXXXX

Caitlin smiled as she watched Jen approach the Lemon. She always got so bored standing there all alone, so she longed for her friend's breaks throughout the day. However, Caitlin's grin was not returned. Jen groaned as she took a seat in her usual chair.

"Awww... what's the matter Jen?" Caitlin asked. She began to whip up a Cherry Lemon Smoothie, Jen's favorite.

"Ugh...just some problems with annoying customers. Why do all my employees send the difficult ones to _me_ so they don't have to deal with them? It's not fair!"

Caitlin set Jen's drink onto the table. "I know how you feel. I always get stuck with the crazy thirteen-year-olds trying to be funny, ordering things like 'diet water'. Some people really need to grow up!"

"Diet water? That's such an old one! If they're going to be annoying they could at least try to be original!"

Caitlin giggled. "I know! But they're only thirteen, you really can't blame them."

-

Lily bit her thumbnail and took a good look around. The place looked even bigger on the inside. Did this many stores even exist in the world?

"Man, I hope I can learn my way around, otherwise I'll be late for work everyday!" Lily muttered to herself, giggling slightly.

She took another glance around and noticed a giant lemon in the distance. Did they sell lemonade? Come to think of it, Lily was getting a bit thirsty. She decided to go check it out.

As she got closer, she noticed a blonde girl wearing a rather dorky lemon hat and a girl in a referee shirt sitting in the table below her.

_They look friendly! _Lily thought to herself. _I'll go say hi._

She smiled and walked right up to the counter, studying the menu. They seemed to have every sort of lemony drink on the planet, from lemon squishies to pink lemonade icees, along with plain lemonade with a variety of possible flavor add ins to choose from.

"Wow...an entire little stand dedicated to lemonade? This mall really is huge!" Lily exclaimed while further studying the vast menu.

The girl in the referee shirt giggled. "Yeah...you didn't know that? Are you from around here?"

Lily sighed. "I am now, I guess. I just moved here about a week ago." Lily glanced down at her cell phone. 10:27. It was her first day and she was already over an hour late. Go figure. "I'll have the lemon squishy please. Can you make it quick? I've gotta be somewhere."

-

Caitlin studied this new girl as she handed her the squishy. She had really long, dark brown hair, with blonde streaks as well as the occasional pink streak, which Caitlin despised. She wore thick black eyeliner on her top lids, and a little bit of mascara, leaving the rest of her face make-up free, and Caitlin could certainly tell by the uneven skin tone she sported. She wore a shirt boasting "The Left Side", which she guessed was some indie band, underneath a blue and black striped jacket. She also wore black skinny jeans and polka dotted tennis shoes. To Caitlin, she was one big fashion disaster.

"Man, that girl really could use a makeover. And a new wardrobe." Caitlin announced as the girl walked away. Jen rolled her eyes.

"Caitlin, not everybody wants to go for the blonde preppy chick look, you know."

"I know but...I just want to put a little bit of foundation on her...she has such uneven skin tone. Ewwww...."

"Caitlin, you can't judge somebody by how they look. I bet she's pretty nice. And most of us don't really care about 'uneven skin tone'." Jen used dramatic air quotes around "skin tone".

"Oh what does it matter, it's not like we're ever going to see her again!"

Jen sighed. "Whatever. I've gotta go back to work. I'll see you at lunch, okay?"

XXXXXX

Nikki couldn't help but laugh at how anxious the clones looked while they waited for the new employee to show up. They were like this on Nikki's first day, too, until they realized she wasn't exactly clone material.

A young, blonde girl walked into the store with a huge smile on her face. She could have passed as another clone, if it weren't for her short height and the large braces that covered her teeth.

"Hi! Welcome to The Khaki Barn! How can we help you?" Kirsten asked her with a huge grin on her face.

Chrissy walked over and slapped Kirsten on the arm. "Kirsten, you idiot! That's probably our new employee! You don't treat them like _normal _customers!"

"Oh, right! Sorry!" Kirsten smacked herself on the head for her mistake. "Well let's go congratulate her and show her around!" She grabbed Chrissy's arm and skipped over to the new girl.

Nikki snort-grunted. "Oh great, another clone to deal with around here. Just what I needed."

"Hey...excuse me, do you work here?" She heard a voice ask. Nikki looked up to see a rather unusual customer for the Khaki Barn. She had dark hair with pink and blonde streaks, along with heavy eyeliner and some rather...different clothes. She looked like some strange combo between emo, scene, and normal.

"Yeah...unfortunately. Um, I don't think you're going to exactly find anything that's your style here..." Nikki replied before laying her head back down on the counter.

"Actually...I'm here for my first day on the job..."

Nikki's eyes widened. This _had_ to be some sort of joke. She lifted her head back off the counter. "You...work at the Khaki Barn? There's no way!"

"Oh yes there is..." She dug through her bag and pulled out some sort of document. "This is the location they transferred me to... and this is my first day, so...here I am!"

Nikki glanced over the document. She was telling the truth. "Wow. Well. Okay. So if you're the new girl then...who's that?" Nikki pointed to the blonde girl she had seen walk in earlier.

"But you HAVE to be it!" Chrissy whined.

"You're like, one of us!" Kristen added in.

"Guys...no...I'm just a customer! Really!" The girl whined.

"Oh nonsense. Quit with the joke, we know you're just trying to surprise us. Come on, we'll get you your name tag!" Kirsten shouted, dragging the girl towards the front counter.

"Uh, clones? She really isn't the new employee. She really is just a customer!" Nikki stated, giggling slightly.

"Ugh, well if she isn't, then who is?" Chrissy replied while folding her arms. She hated it when Nikki tried to smart mouth her.

Nikki silently pointed to the emo/scene/normal girl, who gave a sheepish smile and waved. The clones gasped.

"There's no way _she's_ working at the Khaki barn!" Chrissy shouted. The other two positioned themselves behind Chrissy and nodded their head. "We're not falling for another one of your stupid jokes, _Nikki_."

Nikki picked up the document and handed it to Chrissy. "Actually, she really is. I'm not kidding you."

Chrissy scanned over the document, eyes widening as she read it. After finishing, she sighed and handed the paper back to Nikki. "I guess you are working here now. Welcome to the team." Chrissy groaned. "Nikki, you train her!"

Nikki rolled her eyes as the clones walked away. "Well, uh, I'm Nikki, as you've probably already guessed. You must be..." Nikki eyed the top of the paper "Lily! Nice to meet you Lily!"

Lily's mouth was hanging wide open. "Are...they...triplets or something?"

Nikki rolled her eyes. "No, they're just the clones. They try really hard to look and act the same. Scary, right?"

Lily sat herself down behind the counter. "Just a little. Wow..."

Nikki snort-giggled. Finally, somebody _normal_ around here. "So, how long have you been working for the Tacky Barn, anyways?"

Lily glanced at her phone. "About....five minutes. Not very long."

Nikki tilted her head in confusion. "Wait... weren't you working there back at your old home? I thought you were transferred over..."

Lily leaned her head on her hand, pouting slightly. "No. I _was_ working at Red Hot Gossip back when I lived in the U.S. But apparently they don't have any of those here in Canada."

"Whoa! No way! You actually worked there? I visited one of those back on a family trip to the U.S! I was in heaven!"

Lily sighed. "Yeah. I did. I was the manager too. They loved me so much that they promised me they'd automatically transfer me to a new job when I moved. But since there were no Red Hot Gossips nearby, and the company is owned by The Khaki Barn..."

Nikki scrunched her nose up. "You got stuck here? That sucks. Like majorly."

Lily could swear she felt a tear forming. Nikki was right. It _did_ suck. She was stuck in another country, with no friends, no idea where anything was or how anything worked, and a stupid job with annoying co workers.

Nikki sensed the pain coming from Lily and put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey...want to come eat lunch with my friends and I in a couple of hours? I think you'd like them!"

Lily put on a weak smile. "Sure. I'd love that."

XXXXXXX

Jude took a good, long look at the ice before him. Things looked pretty smooth.

He proceeded to park the zamboni in it's usual spot and hopped out of it. He noticed a couple of 'Zamboni Dude' fans pressing their faces against his window, some holding notepads for him to autograph, and others even going so far as to wear 'Zamboni Dude' t-shirts.

Jude was always amazed that the novelty of Zamboni Dude never wore off, even after months and months with the title. He was almost like a local celebrity. At least to the little twelve year olds who admired him. He even had posters of him hanging up in the mall in various places.

Jude let out a light chuckle and stepped outside of his office. His fans began to crowd around him, shoving their notepads close to his face. He let out a deep sigh.

"Little dudes and dudettes, I can't sign autographs right now! I promised my friends I'd meet them for lunch and I'm gonna be late!" Jude exclaimed as he gently shoved his fans aside. "But don't worry, Zamboni Dude will be back in an hour!"

The kids began to squeal, along with random "I love you Zamboni Dude!" outbursts and more crowding.

Jude somehow managed to plow his way through the crowd and hopped on his skateboard before the fans caught up. Okay, maybe he wasn't _really _in a huge hurry for lunch. He probably could have signed all of his fan's autographs and still have shown up to lunch without his friends worrying any. But 'Zamboni Dude' was feeling lazy today.

He dug around in his back pocket, too hungry to wait for the five minute ride to the food court. He thumbed over some sort of round, slightly sticky object. Curious, he pulled it out and examined it. It was slightly green, with brown spots and unidentifiable fuzz growing. It seemed to ooze some sort of bright green juice. Jude shrugged his shoulders. "Looks edible to me!" He took a bite out of the top and thought for a second. Suddenly, it came to him.

"Oh yeah! This was the pickle I stuck in my pocket a couple of weeks ago because I didn't have enough money for lunch! I must've forgotten to eat it!" he shrugged his shoulders again. "Oh well. It's still good."

He took another big bite out of the top, unaware of where he was going, or the fact that he was about to run into a plant display.

_BAM!_

Jude's vision went black.

-

"Are you okay?"

Jude opened his eyes to see a girl peering over him. She looked to be about sixteen or seventeen. She sported heavy eyeliner and dark hair with blonde and pink streaks, and was carrying boxes labeled 'The Khaki Barn'. Definitely not something you saw at the mall everyday.

"Hello? Do you need some help up?"

The girl took his hand and lifted his upper body up to a sitting position. Jude rubbed his eyes as his vision blurred back to normal.

"Whoaaaa... what happened, dudette?" Jude asked while rubbing his aching head.

The girl giggled slightly. "Well, you were eating some sort of...I don't even know. And you weren't paying attention and you rammed into the plant display here." Her nose scrunched up slightly. "You got some of the....substance on your shirt by the way."

Jude looked down at his shirt. Sure enough, there was a huge green and brown stain splattered on his shirt, along with the original pickle, which was lodged inside his armpit. How did that happen?

"Awww man, now I gotta walk around all day looking like I puked on myself!" He separated his arm from his body, causing the pickle to drop, and then stood himself up. The girl continued to giggle.

"I'm Lily by the way." She started to reach her hand out, but pulled it back after spotting Jude's goop covered hand.

"I'm Jude. Nice to meet you, brah!"

Lily's eyes widened slightly. "Wait, are you the Jude that's on the 'Zamboni Dude' posters all over the mall?"

"Yepp. That would be me!" Jude replied with a grin.

Lily sat herself down on the nearby bench and ran her fingers through her hair. "You guys have famous _zamboni drivers?_ Man, Canada is going to take _a lot_ of getting used to!"

"Well, no, we don't have famous zamboni drivers, it's just me, well, er... It's hard to explain." Jude sat himself down beside Lily. "So, you're obviously not from around here. Where are you from, bra?"

Lily's smile quickly turned into a slight frown. "I'm from the U.S. I just moved here last week."

"Duuuuuuude, that's so awesome! I've always wanted to go down there!"

Lily let out a slight chuckle. "It's really not all that great. Especially where I'm from. I just miss my friends and family there, you know?"

Jude shrugged his shoulders. He had lived here all his life. He couldn't really relate.

Lily glanced over at the Khaki Barn boxes beside her and remembered what she was supposed to be doing.

"Uh, Jude? Do you happen to know where the Khaki Barn is? I was supposed to be back with these boxes like half an hour ago, but this mall is so huge that I keep getting lost!"

Jude chuckled. "Of course, dude! I know this mall like the back of my hand!" He pulled his skateboard up closer to him and flipped it up into his hand. "Want me to give you a ride?"

Lily giggled, widening her eyes slightly. "You don't seriously think you can ride with me standing on the board, do you?"

Jude grabbed Lily's boxes and stuck them on the edge of the board, then proceeded to grab Lily's arm and fasten both arms around his stomach. "Don't worry about it, brah. I can do it."

"If you say SOOOO! AHHH!" Lily began to scream as Jude began to move forward. She was obviously not used to riding on a skateboard. "Slow down! What if I fall?"

Jude turned his head towards Lily. "You won't fall. I promise. Just trust me, okay?" He let out one of his signature low chuckles and began to speed up.

Lily took a deep breath and smiled. This wasn't so bad. She leaned in closer to his ear. "Do you think you could take me on a ride on your zamboni later? It sounds like fun!"

"Sure thing, brah!"

***

"Well, I see you've met Jude!" Nikki announced as Jude zoomed up to the Khaki Barn entrance. "What took you so long, anyways?"

"Dudette here got lost, so I took the liberty of helping her get to her rightful place!" Jude replied , lifting his chest slightly and grinning wide.

"So...you just randomly found her and decided to help her out? Awful nice of you..." Nikki commented with skeptical look on her face.

Lily rolled her eyes. "No, he crashed after biting into an expired pickle and not paying attention and I happened to walk by and help him up."

Nikki rolled her eyes and giggled. "That sounds more like the Jude I know. Here, I'll drop the inventory off in the back, and we can all go for lunch, okay?"

XXXXXXX

Caitlin looked up at the big clock that was in the center of the food court. 12:25. Her friends would be there any minute.

Caitlin quickly threw off her uniform and closed down the lemon. She took a seat in their usual table and waited.

As usual, Jonesy was the first to stroll up. Usually by this time of day he was either out of a job or about to start one. Today was no different. He had on his "I just got fired" face.

"Hey Jonesy! What's the matter? Get fired again?"

Jonesy sat himself down in the chair next to Caitlin. "I wish. I got this new job at Mallory's Surprise, thinking that a ton of hot chicks would be there."

Caitlin scrunched her nose up. "Eww, Jonesy, everybody knows that that store is filled with a bunch of desperate old ladies who want to be hip again."

"Well, _now_ you tell me! If a bunch of old ladies shop in that store, how come they have hotties in the catalogs?"

"Because, Jonesy," Caitlin rolled her eyes. "They _want_ old women to think that it's this hot, hip store so they'll shop there. It's all just a marketing ploy. Obviously, you fell for it, too."

"Maybe I should consult you next time before getting a job anywhere. Seriously, do you _know_ how many old lady boobs I had to grope today? You would think they'd learn to measure themselves _before_ walking into the store!"

Caitlin scrunched her nose up again. "Oh, that's bad. Wait, how did you even get a job at a lingerie store anyways?" Caitlin narrowed her eyes and leaned her head towards him. "Don't tell me you pulled the gay line again! Ugh, Jonesy!"

"What? What else was I supposed to say? I wanted the job!"

Caitlin rolled her eyes. "I guess groping old lady boobs is just karma, then."

"Gee, thanks Cait."

"Hey there, Jonesy!" said a voice coming from behind. Nikki, he presumed. She sauntered up closer, bent down from behind, and kissed him on the cheek. "What did we miss?"

Jonesy turned around and saw Jude and a rather...freaky looking chick behind her. Who was she?

Caitlin knew, alright. She cringed at the site of her. She just couldn't _stand_ her get up!

"I see you brought a new friend, Nikki." Caitlin groaned.

"Oh yeah, guys, this is Lily. She's my new co worker at the Tacky Barn. You can have a seat, if you want." Nikki gestured Lily into the seat between Jude and her. She took her seat shyly.

"Oh hey, you're the girl who works in this giant lemon! I met you earlier...er...sorta." Lily piped in. "Where's the girl with the referee shirt?"

"Jen? She and Wyatt should be here any minute. I'm Jonesy, by the way." Jonesy put his hand out and sort of force-shook it with Lily.

"Oh, hi Jonesy. I'm Lily. So...there's six of you? Are you guys like, a little clan or something?" Lily asked.

"I wouldn't call it a 'clan'," Nikki replied. "Just six friends who have known each other for awhile, that's all."

"Hey guys!" came another voice. The gang turned to see Jen and Wyatt, looking rather disheveled, with hair all messed up and clothes wrinkled. The gang went silent.

"What? Why so quiet?" Jen asked while taking a seat next to Caitlin. Wyatt took a seat as well, laying his head on the table and grunting.

"Did you guys...?" Jonesy attempted to ask.

Jen rolled her eyes. "Don't get any dirty thoughts, guys. We got trampled by a bunch of preschoolers gone loose on our way down here. It took us _forever_ to get out of there!"

"Yeah!" Wyatt joined in. "Apparently their daycare supervisor went for a lunch break and forgot to call in someone else to watch them. Go figure."

"Ouch. How irresponsible of them!" Lily piped in. "You guys must be Jen and Wyatt. Hi!"

"Yeah..." replied Jen, not bothering to look and see where the somewhat familiar voice was coming from.

It suddenly clicked. The girl from the Lemon!

Caitlin leaned over into Jen's ear. "I can't believe that girl we saw earlier is friends with Nikki!"

Jen smirked. "And you said you would never see her again. Funny."

Caitlin rolled her eyes. "Is she going to be, like, our new gang member? She seems so unlike us though!"

"Caitlin, you can't judge someone by how they look, as I said earlier! And besides, we took _you_ in back in your snobby shallow days."

"I guess that's true..." Caitlin replied with a defeated look on her face.

Jen scrunched her nose up. "She _does_ look a little tacky. I don't know..."

_I don't care if the rest of the gang likes her. She just seems too weird for me! I'm staying away from her... _Caitlin's thoughts were cut off by Jonesy.

"So, Lily, where are you from?"

"The U.S. Nothing special." She shrugged.

Caitlin's face lit up. She completely forgot about the decision she had made in her head. "That's so cool! Did you live in New York? I hear they have this _huge_ city there! With like tons of stores!"

"Or California? Apparently a bunch of celebrities live there!" Jen joined in.

"Or Florida? They supposedly have the prettiest beaches there...how romantic..."

"Or Louisiana? They have the _best_ food there!"

Lily sort of half-frowned and shrugged again. "Actually, I'm from a small town in South Dakota. Nothing interesting."

"Where?" Jen and Caitlin seemed to ask simultaneously.

"It's the state below North Dakota, which is right below Canada. Don't you guys remember that from geography last year?" Nikki replied.

"Oh...yeah..." said Caitlin. "That is boring. Why did you move here?"

Lily looked even more upset. "My parents got a divorce, so my dad decided to move back to his old hometown. Here."

"Oh, that sucks. I remember moving here right before sophomore year. I was so freaked out!" Caitlin replied. "I didn't have any friends, really, until I met Tricia. And she turned out to be a total jerk!"

Jen smiled. "What grade are you going into anyways?"

"I'm a senior. I'm starting next Monday. I'm so nervous!" Lily replied.

"Oh, don't be! We're seniors too! You can hang out with us!" Jen's smile grew even bigger.

Lily's half frown turned into a small smile. "Really?"

"Sure! You seem cool enough. Welcome to the gang!" Jonesy added in with a big grin.

Jude looked up from his belly button, where he was digging for lint. "Are we gonna eat? I'm st-AR-ving!"

"Oh yeah! I forgot about lunch. Let's go, guys!" Jen announced, lifting herself from the seat.

"Someone should wake Wyatt up before we go..." Nikki snickered as he let out a slight snore.

"I'll do it!" Jude shouted. He picked up his reject belly button lint from the table and waved it around his ear.

Wyatt jumped from his chair, spooked. "What was that?!"

"It was my belly button lint." Jude said nonchalantly, tossing the lint aside.

Wyatt cringed. "Gross Jude!"

Jen giggled. "Are we ready for lunch now? Let's go!"

Jude picked up his skateboard. Lily giggled. "Can I ride with you again?"

"Sure thing brah, as long as you don't scream in my ear again!"

Lily nodded and positioned herself behind Jude. "Meet you guys there!"

XXXXXX

**A/N: So, there you have it! Lily! I'll try to update ASAP and get the actual plot going**


	2. Part One

**A/N: Okay, now that the boring part is finished, onto the actual plot.  
Surprisingly enough, this story is actually getting hits. I can understand why no reviews though. The story probably put you to sleep  
Well, enjoy!**

**XXXXXXXXXXX  
**

"Whats with you and Jude? Ever since that week after you moved here, you guys are attached at the hip! You act like you guys have known each other forever!" Nikki told Lily while hanging some tops up in the back of the Khaki Barn.

Nikki did have a point. With all the zamboni rides, random sleepovers, and strange mall adventures, one would think they were really close, possibly even brother and sister.

Lily shrugged. "I don't know. I guess we both just connected, considering we're both kind of weird... plus it's kinda fun to say that I'm friends with Zamboni Dude!"

Nikki rolled her eyes. "You're just as bad as the kiddies with that whole Zamboni Dude thing. Seriously."

Lily slapped Nikki with the t-shirt she was holding. "Am not!" She hung the shirt onto the rack. "Why are we doing this, anyways? Can't one of the clones do this? They don't seem to be doing anything."

Nikki snort-grunted. "Yeah. Seriously. What are they doing anyways?"

Lily and Nikki glanced over to see. Kristen was holding up a poster, smiling, while Chrissy and Kirsten stared at it, wide eyed and grinning.

"What is that?" Nikki asked to nobody in particular.

Lily attempted to read it by squinting her eyes. No luck. "Let's go get a closer look!" She grabbed Nikki's arm and pulled her towards the clones.

"So...what's that?" Lily asked. The clones began to squeal.

"Read it!" Kristen shouted, shoving the poster into Lily's face. Lily pulled the poster back so Nikki could see and began to read it:

**The First Annual Zamboni Girl Contest!**

**Come join us at the mall's amphitheater on October 23****rd**** at 7 PM and watch as Zamboni Dude and a select panel of judges pick the new Zamboni Girl! There will be singing, dancing, and whatever else the talent may choose to show! Admission is only five dollars!**

**To Enter:**

_**Participants must be at least eleven years of age and must prepare a two to three minute act. The act can be anything, so be creative! The winner will receive a dinner date with Zamboni Dude as well as the title of 'Zamboni Girl' and all it's glory. Fill out one of the forms below and submit it into one of the Zamboni Girl boxes located throughout the mall!**_

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" the girls shouted rather loudly. Lily and Nikki stared at each other wide eyed.

"You don't seriously think Jude plotted this, do you?" Nikki asked.

Lily shook her head. "There's no way. Jude is way too lazy to throw together something huge like this. And where would he possibly get the money to rent out the amphitheater?"

"Let's go ask Jen. Maybe she knows something about this, since she's more organized." Nikki replied.

Lily agreed. "I'm sure Jen gathered all the money together and helped Jude. Makes sense."

Nikki slung her bag, which had previously been carelessly tossed on the floor, over her shoulder. "Clones, we're taking our break now!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Another slow day at work...how boring! _Caitlin thought as she began to file her nails. _Come on people! I'm getting paid commissions! Can't you just suck it up and buy a lemonade?! _

Caitlin let out a deep sigh. It was no use. She would either have to come up with a really good idea or suffer a low paycheck.

Caitlin tossed her nail file aside and rested her head on her hand. In the distance she saw Wyatt approaching, with his usual coffee in one hand and a glum look on his face.

When he got to the table, he smashed his face into his arm and groaned. His usual "I screwed something up" groan. Oh dear.

"What's the matter Wyatt?" Caitlin asked.

Wyatt sighed, and lifted his head up. "There's a new girl at work. Her name's Ariel."

Caitlin squealed. "Ooh! Is she hot?"

"Like insanely so! She's got deep blue eyes, long, blonde hair that's perfectly in place..." Wyatt let out a dreamy sigh. "Ariel..."

"Awww! You must be pretty into her! Did you ask her out?"

No response.

"Um, Wyatt?" Caitlin began waving her hand in his face. Still no response.

"WYATT!"

Wyatt shook his head around. "Wow. Sorry. I was just...distracted..."

Caitlin rolled her eyes. "Okay, so it's obvious you really like her. So what's the problem? Just ask her out!"

Wyatt groaned and dropped his head back onto his arm. "I'll be lucky if she ever wants to go near me again after what happened today!"

"Oh come on, Wyatt! It couldn't have been _that_ bad!"

"Oh trust me, it _was..."_

_-_

_"_Hey, Wyatt, can you come back here for a sec?" Wyatt heard his boss shout from near the break room.

"Sure thing!" he replied. He put a little 'away' sign up near the register and paced towards the break room.

"Wyatt, this is Ariel, our new employee. She'll mainly be taking inventory and making sure we have enough supplies."

A young, attractive blonde girl stepped out from behind Wyatt's boss and waved. Wyatt felt his knees weaken a little bit. She was _hot._

_"_H-h-h-hi A-ariel! It's nice to meet you!"

"Now Wyatt, why don't you show Ariel where we store all of the coffee and show her where everything goes? I'll run the register." This was more of a demand than a question, of course.

"Sure, I'd be happy to! Come with me, Ariel."

Wyatt led her around to the storage room, careful not to trip over the pressure of her watching him. He was trying to improve, but he was still horrible around girls.

"So...I'm guessing this is the storage room?" Ariel asked. Wyatt gave a huge, nervous grin and nodded.

"Are...you okay?"

Wyatt laughed nervously. "Yeah, yeah. I'm perfectly fine. So, your name is Ariel, right? Cool name, reminds me of The Little Mermaid. Man, I sure do love that movie. It may seem like it's for little kids but I just never get tired of it! I watched it last weekend actually. Such a cute ending, isn't it? Do you think you'll ever find somebody like that to sweep you off your feet?"

Wyatt slapped his mouth and grunted. He talked _way_ too much when he was nervous.

Ariel awkwardly glanced around the room. "Uh...maybe? I don't know..." She bit on her thumbnail, avoiding further conversation.

"Oh, sorry. Sometimes I ramble a lot, you'll have to forgive me. So anyways, this is where we store the imported coffee..."

Wyatt backed himself up, hitting a box along the way, causing his legs to shake and his rather loose pants to fall down. Underneath his pants were a pair of superhero briefs with his name sewed onto the hem, which soon fell down along with his pants.

Wyatt looked down and turned several shades of deep red. "Oh...oops....hehehehe...."

-

Caitlin brought her hand up to her mouth, curling her fingers in. "Ouch. That's bad..."

"Just wait, it didn't even end there! When I bent down to pick my pants up, I sort of...blew gas in her face..."

Caitlin cringed. "Ewww! Wyatt!"

Wyatt groaned. "I know, I know! You don't have to rub it in..."

"Sorry....wow. That is really bad. Like _really_ bad. How come you were so nervous over her?"

"I don't know! Man, I can't ever go in there again! Looks like I'll have to quit my job and go back to Burger McFlipsters."

"No! Wyatt! You can't do that! So you got nervous and your pants fell down...big deal! What you need is a confidence boost...and a makeover!"

"Whoa what?! How is a _makeover _going to make things any better?" Wyatt asked, backing his chair up a little.

"Because, _silly, _you need to act more confident around her! Act like today was just one of your bad days. You have to prove to her that it was no big deal and calm down around her. Trust me, it will work!" Caitlin rolled her eyes, as if this was the most obvious solution out there.

"Okay, but why do I need a makeover?"

"_Because_ makeovers boost confidence! Plus I'm _great_ at helping give them. I'll help you through it all! How to act more confident, be more suave and calm, and look great! Okay! Meet me here again at your next break and I'll go over the plan with you, and then, when your shift ends..." Caitlin pulled out a huge stack of her magazines. "It's makeover time!"

Wyatt groaned. "Okay, fine! This better work!"

Caitlin squealed and hugged Wyatt. "Oh it will, I promise!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As Lily and Nikki dashed over to the Penalty Box, they noticed a ton of 'Zamboni Girl' posters and submission boxes spread throughout. Little crowds of screaming fans were gathered around each poster, with a couple of brave ones filling out the entry form and proudly sticking it in the submission box. And sure enough, as the girls made it to the Penalty Box they noticed a poster hanging in the window, along with it's own crowd of a few fans.

"See? Jen even has a poster hanging outside her window! She has to know _something_ about this whole thing!" Nikki exclaimed as they walked inside.

Nikki glanced around for Jen, who was nowhere to be found. She checked inside the penalty box, where a couple of her employees were sitting. Nikki giggled slightly, remembering the days when Jen was constantly stuck in there. Nikki even sat in there with her a couple of times.

Nikki poked her head inside. "Hey, you guys, do you know where Jen is?"

The employees stared back with blank expressions.

"I mean, er, Coach Masterson."

One employee lit up. "Oh! She's back in the stock room, right...that way." He pointed towards a small door towards the back.

"Okay, thanks!" Nikki grabbed Lily, who had been staring at some of the equipment, and dashed back to the stock room.

"Jen?" they both called out.

From the distance they noticed the tall, sort-of-redhead turn around and smile. "Hey guys! What are you doing here?"

"We saw signs around the mall about this whole 'Zamboni Girl' contest and we wanted to know if you were behind it all." Nikki replied as they walked closer to where Jen was standing.

"Yeah, we knew there was _no_ way Jude could throw something like this together. We figured you funded and organized the whole thing," Lily added in.

Jen threw them a quizzical look. "Zamboni Girl?"

"You've got a poster for it outside..." Lily dashed out and back in. "See?"

Jen studied the poster for a minute, widening her eyes slightly. "There's no _way_ Jude did this. Maybe it's some creeper looking for a way to earn money."

Lily put her hand to her mouth. "Oh, that would be so bad! What if it's all a scam?"

Jen sighed. "Look, why don't we go down to the rink and ask Jude about it? Then we can figure out if it's real or not and spread the word if it's not."

Nikki and Lily shrugged.

"Okay, come on, let's go head to the rink right now!" Jen stormed out of the stock room, with Nikki and Lily sauntering slowly behind, as usual.

-

"Jude? Hello? JUDE?!" Jen shouted to the rather empty looking ice.

"We're back here!" the girls heard Jonesy shout. What was _Jonesy_ doing there?

Lily waved her hand to the others. "Come on, guys. I think they're down in the little room where they keep the Zamboni parked."

After the girls managed to walk across the ice (Nikki slipped a few times), they popped into the room and noticed Jude and Jonesy, with a Zamboni Girl submission box and several forms in hand.

Lily's eyes widened as she noticed the box. "So you guys are the ones throwing this together?"

Jonesy looked up from his form. "Yepp. Can you believe all the hype it's getting?"

Nikki glanced down at a stray poster and glanced back up, in total shock. "You guys really managed to find money to throw this all together?"

"Yeah!" Jen agreed. "Renting the amphitheater is really expensive!"

Jonesy grinned. "Not when the owner's daughter is a huge Zamboni Dude fan! We got a major discount. His daughter is entering in the contest. We've got it all planned out..." Jonesy handed Nikki a sheet of paper with a rough draft of a talent list and the order they would be performing. "See?"

Nikki let out a small smile as she studied the plan. "Wow, I'm truly impressed. One of your stupid schemes is actually showing potential of being a success!"

Jonesy's grin faded slightly. "Uh, thanks?"

Jude finally decided to look up from the form he was reading. "Oh, hey dudettes! Just who we wanted to see! We wanted to ask you something. Heheheh."

"Oh yeah!" Jonesy piped in. "We need two more judges and someone to announce the whole thing. Do you guys want to?"

Nikki squinted her eyes. "It depends. Do we get any money for it?"

Jonesy chuckled. "Judging by the hype this event is getting, we'll have _plenty_ of money to go around."

Lily jumped up and down excitedly. "Ooh! Ooh! Can I be the announcer? I've always wanted to be an M.C. for a show!"

Nikki shrugged. "I guess I'll be a judge."

Jonesy smiled. "Jen?"

Jen looked uncomfortable. "I just...don't believe it. I think you guys are up to something. You've never thrown something together so organized!"

"Oh come on Jen!" Nikki urged. "What could possibly go wrong? They're just basically putting on a little talent show. Give the guys a chance."

Jen sighed. "Oh, all right. But if things go bad..."

Jonesy grinned and rolled his eyes. "Relax, Jen, everything will be just fine!"

Nikki picked up the stray poster from the ground. "How come the minimum age is _eleven?_"

"Yeah! Isn't that, like, illegal?" Lily asked.

Jude looked up from another submission. "I wanted to give all the little dudettes a chance too, you know?"

Jen giggled. "Besides, it's not like anybody older than like fourteen is actually going to enter for this!"

Nikki rolled her eyes. "Actually, you'd be surprised."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Caitlin squealed as Wyatt approached The Lemon once more. She pulled out her stack of magazines, ready to spit out the plan that had been formulating in her head all day.

"Okay, I've only got about ten minutes, so let's make this quick!" Wyatt announced as he took a seat.

"EEEE!" Caitlin squealed. "Okay, so, lets start with the personality. You're way too shy! Tomorrow, when you arrive at work, you're going to need to buff up. Act like you're on top of the world!"

"How can I do that? I'm too mortified to even look anybody in there in the face!"

"That's the problem! You have to act like nothing happened. It's no big deal. Just go right up to her, smile, and say hi. If you don't make a big deal, neither will she. Trust me! Here, practice on me!"

Caitlin threw off her lemon hat and apron and closed The Lemon, taking a seat near Wyatt.

"Now, start from over there." She pointed to a nearby trash can. "Walk over to me and say hi. And remember, confidence!"

Wyatt grunted. "Okay, I'll try." He sauntered over to the trash can, slouching.

"Wyatt!" Caitlin shouted as he made his way to the trash can. "That's not confidence! That looks like depression!"

"What? I didn't know we were starting!"

Caitlin rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. Start now!"

Wyatt pushed his chest into the air, rather boldly, and did a sort of waddle-walk towards Caitlin. She smacked her forehead. He looked ridiculous!

When Wyatt made it to the table, he set his hand down and winked at Caitlin.

"Hey there, Ariel," he said in an overly seductive tone, followed by another wink.

Silence.

"So...how was that?" Wyatt asked.

Caitlin sighed. "That was...creepy."

Wyatt smacked his head. "Awww man! I'm hopeless!"

"No no no! You just need to...tone it down a bit. Act more casual. And...please don't wink. Try it again!" Caitlin beckoned Wyatt towards the trash can again.

Wyatt rolled back his shoulders and took a deep breath. He flashed a big, toothy grin and sauntered back to Caitlin.

"Wait, stop!" Caitlin shouted

"What?"

"Tone the smile down a little. And put your hands in your pockets!"

Wyatt did as she said, still stepping rather slowly. He actually looked pretty confident. He leaned into the table again, and managed a casual "Hi Ariel!" with a smile on his face.

Caitlin squealed. "Ooh! That was perfect!"

Wyatt glanced down at his watch. "Glad I got it, because I need to go! My break ends in a couple of minutes."

Caitlin sighed. "Oh, okay! Remember to meet back here when your shift finishes!"

Wyatt gave Caitlin a thumbs-up. "Will do!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I'm SOOOO excited for Zamboni Girl!" Kristen shouted as Lily and Nikki walked back into the Khaki Barn.

"Oh me too!" Kirsten agreed.

"Wouldn't it be so cool if one of us won?!" Chrissy shouted.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"For my act, I'm going to show off how many bags I can hold at once!"

"I'm going to show my skills in matching colors!"

"Oh you're _so_ going to get picked with that!"

"I'm going to sing!"

"No way!"

"Yeah, you're _such_ a great singist!"

Nikki and Lily couldn't tell who was who anymore. Their voices tended to blend when they rambled on like this.

"Did somebody just say 'singist'?" Lily asked.

Nikki snorted. "Yeah. I swear, they were dropped on their heads as babies."

The girls went back to putting up T-shirts, as they were doing before.

"Who wears these clothes?" Nikki asked with a groan as she hung another shirt up. "Seriously, these shirts look exactly like the ones in the front that are like, fifty dollars more. What's the point?"

"_Nikki_, don't you understand?" Lily asked, mocking the clone's voice. "These, like, have stripes on the sleeves! Stripes are so OUT! So we _had_ to put them on clearance!"

Nikki rolled her eyes and giggled. "They're brainwashed, I swear."

"I know. I miss working at Red Hot Gossip. The clothes there actually looked _normal_!"

And then, the idea hit her. She still had a couple of boxes of inventory left from RHG. If the plan worked...

"Stay here, Nikki. Watch this!"

Lily strolled casually up to the "eeeee"ing clones, sporting a big grin on her face. She tapped Chrissy lightly on the shoulder, causing her to jump back from fright.

"Oh, it's just you, Lily. Do you need something?" She asked.

Lily shrugged her shoulders. "I just noticed you guys were excited about the Zamboni Girl contest"

Kirsten and Kristen squealed.

"Duh!" Kristen shouted.

"Like insanely so!" Kirsten added in.

"We could be like...famous if we win!" Chrissy chirped.

"Are you entering, Lily?" Kirsten asked.

"Actually," Lily put on a mischievous grin. "I'm going to be the M.C for it!"

The girls squealed. "No way! That's so cool!"

"Oh, I know right? The judges and I are like this!" Lily twisted her index and middle finger together.

"Awww, lucky!" Chrissy whined.

"Yeah, I bet she has, like, influence on the decision!" Kristen shouted.

Lily couldn't help but giggle a bit. "I do, actually. And..." She leaned in closer. "I just might be able to influence Jude, er, Zamboni Dude, to place you guys in his top three!"

"No way!" Kristen and Kirsten shouted at the same time. They hugged each other, squealed, and jumped up and down.

"Way! I totally have the connections!"

Chrissy glared at Lily. "Wait a minute, what's in it for you?"

"Oh, nothing huge, really. I just had some _really_ good ideas for the Khaki Barn that could help our sales. So maybe you guys could let me run the Khaki Barn for a week?"

Chrissy glared even harder. "Yeah right! This is probably some stupid little plan you and Nikki have going!"

Lily tried her best to look disgusted. "Me? Plan with _Nikki?_ We're friends and stuff, but let's face it, she's not exactly 'Khaki Barn Material'. Besides," She leaned in even closer, towards Chrissy's ear. "Nikki was telling me how much she secretly _loves_ the Khaki Barn, and would totally shop here if it weren't for her tough girl image. Do you really think she'd want to destroy her favorite store?"

Kirsten smiled. "This is her favorite store? Awww!"

"Yeah, of course! Why else would she have stayed here so long? You can't let her tough girl thing get to her. She's totally harmless. Really!"

Kristen and Kirsten squealed. "Say yes! Say yes!"

"Don't you want to be Zamboni Girl, like, sooo badly?" Kristen asked.

"Yeah! If you take the deal we'll be like, guaranteed to win!"

Lily grinned even larger. Her plan was working. "Yeah, besides, I _was_ manager at the old store I worked at. I know how to run the place. The store's in good hands!"

Chrissy sighed. "Okay, _fine._ You can have the store next week."

"Promise? No backing out!"

"Do you promise to tell Zamboni Dude?"

Lily put her hand near her heart. "Does it look like I'm kidding? Of course I promise!"

"Okay then, deal!" Chrissy and Lily shook hands. Lily tried as hard as humanly possible not to burst out laughing, at least until she made it back to the rack, where Nikki was staring in shock.

"What did you just...do?" Nikki asked.

Lily clapped her hands together. "I just won control of the Khaki Barn for an entire week!"

"What? How did you manage that?"

"I told them I'd give Jude special word about this stupid Zamboni Girl contest if they let me run the place for a week. They totally accepted."

Nikki snickered. "Are you actually going to tell Jude to pick them?"

Lily giggle-sighed. "I might. I doubt it."

Nikki hung yet another shirt onto the rack. "So, what are you going to do with the Tacky Barn for a whole week?"

Lily laughed mischievously. "I have a couple of plans up my sleeve."

"Oh god. This should be interesting!" Nikki snort-laughed. "Seriously, what exactly do you plan to do?"

Lily winked. "You'll just have to wait and see."


	3. Part Two

**A/N: Hey guys! Sorry it took me so long to update, I got distracted...oopsies. But anyways, I'm super flattered with the reviews/favorites, and all of the hits I've gotten. Wow! I didn't think anybody would read it!  
Sorry if this chapter is a little lengthy... that's just how I write (:  
Just a note, the two events going on aren't happening at the same time... It's just showing you the events leading up to the big contest! I hope I cleared up any confusion before it started.  
And one more thing, am I supposed to be writing disclaimer things? I figured since this was "FAN fiction" (emphasis on the fan), it wouldn't matter. But just to be safe, I don't own anybody or anything except Lily.  
Enjoy!**

XXXXXXXXXX

After his shift was finished, Wyatt took a nervous gulp and strolled rather slowly over to the Lemon, where Caitlin was (quite literally) grinning from ear to ear. He took a deep breath and took a seat in a chair.

"EEEEEE! Are you ready?"

Wyatt groaned. "Let's just get this over with."

Caitlin tapped her nails on the table in thought. "Let's start with your hair!"

Wyatt quickly covered his hair with his arms in protection. "What's wrong with my hair?!"

"It's so poofy and tangle-y! I'm going to brush it out and straighten it!"

Wyatt refused to move his arms. "I haven't brushed my hair in forever! It's going to hurt! Besides, if you straighten my hair, it's going to be _really _long!"

Caitlin waved her hand forward. "So what? The long look is back in! If we tie it back in a ponytail, it will look totally sophisticated!"

"But...I'm...not so sure about this..."

Caitlin glared at Wyatt. "You said I could make you over, so we're going to do this my way!"

Wyatt grunted. "Fine. Just try not to make this painful!"

"Oh I won't!" Caitlin studied Wyatt's hair, and pulled out a rather large hairbrush from her makeup bag. "We're going to need a heavy duty brush!"

Wyatt screamed in pain as Caitlin began to hack away at Wyatt's rather large hair. It was a tough job, too. There were practically knots within knots.

Caitlin hit Wyatt's head lightly with the hairbrush. "Quit whining! It'll be over before you know it!" She studied the knots once more. "This is going to need some detangler!" She grabbed her makeup bag once more and pulled out a large, unlabeled bottle. She proceeded to spray some on one of the current knots she was working. A fruity scent filled the air as Wyatt began coughing.

"What ...kind.... of ...detangler... _is... _that?!" Wyatt asked in between coughs.

Caitlin looked at the bottle. It was her perfume, which she had sprayed quite a bit of.

"Oops! I used my perfume instead of the detangler!" Caitlin sniffed Wyatt's hair. "But hey, at least your hair smells good!"

"Can you just get on with this, please?"

"Okay, okay!" Caitlin pulled out her _real_ detangler and began hacking away again at Wyatt's hair. "Here, read this while you're at it!" she pulled out one of her magazines and flipped it open.

"How to get the man of your dreams?" Wyatt read from the top of the page with a quizzical look.

"Yeah! You'll just have to change all the pronouns in your head, but otherwise the advice is perfect!"

Wyatt scratched his head. "If you say so..." He began reading the page. "Step one. Really get to know your crush. Take active interest in their interests and make conversation as often as possible...I don't know, Cait. That sounds borderline creepy."

Caitlin tugged at another knot. "It's not, promise! Just keep reading!"

"Step two. Once they've noticed you, send major hints. Winking, excessive smiling, and even touching their arm all work. Once again, creepy!"

Caitlin rolled her eyes. "It's not creepy! It works! I've done this so many times!"

"I really don't know about this..."

Caitlin began foaming at the mouth a little. "Quit being such a wuss! Seriously, things will be fine!"

Wyatt groaned and rested his head on his hand. This was going to be a long rest of the day.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Nikki's mouth fell wide open as she approached the Khaki Barn. Loud screamo music was blaring so loud you could practically hear it even from outside of the mall. It's preppy white spotlights had been replaced with harsh black and red ones. The usually bald mannequins sported wigs with outrageous hairstyles and even more outrageous outfits, ranging from goth to just plain weird. In the front were clothes that looked like they came straight from a Red Hot Gossip catalog, and in the back, real Khaki Barn clothes were taped off, with "LAST SEASON" written in big letters above them. It was a clone nightmare.

Nikki wandered deep into the store to find Lily putting up several posters of a bunch of Indie bands Nikki had never heard of. Lily turned around and smiled.

"Huhhh-Nuhh-uhh!" she attempted to shout over the loud music.

"WHAT?!" Nikki shouted back.

Lily hopped off the ladder and beckoned Nikki back to the break room, where the music bled through at a normal volume.

"W-what did you do to the Khaki Barn?!" Nikki asked, still in shock.

Lily giggled. "I _gothified _it! You like?"

"Where did you even find the time to do this? School let out not even an hour ago!"

"I know!" Lily replied with a mischievous grin. "I left a couple hours early so I'd have time to set this all up!"

"And the clones haven't seen it?"

"I told them they could come into work late today. They'll be here in about half an hour."

Nikki stood there in complete silence. "Wow..."

Lily laughed. "Check out their new uniform!" She pulled out an article of clothing from a mysterious bin. It was almost like a unitard, only with thicker material. It was black with bright red polka dots all over, along with chains and random earrings coming out from just about everywhere.

"Wow...well, as long as I don't have to wear it!"

Lily peered out the door, and noticed the clones standing outside the store, wide eyed and angry. Lily picked up the new uniforms. "Looks like they're here early! Time to explain everything so I won't get fired!"

"How are you going to possibly manage that? This store looks horrible!"

Lily grinned. "Watch me."

"Lily! Nikki! What did you do with the store?!" Chrissy fumed as they both approached the clones. Lily faked a gasp.

"What are you guys wearing?! That's so...out!" Lily exclaimed.

"What do you mean? I love this top..." Kirsten whined

Nikki began playing along. "Oh my god, you guys didn't hear? Eccentric goth is, like, totally the new style! Cute and preppy is _so _out!"

"Yeah! _Everybody_ knows that by now!" Lily added in.

Kristen flipped her hair back. "Oh...we _totally_ knew that!"

Kirsten nodded her head. "Yeah! We were just messing around with you guys, _duh!"_

Chrissy glared at the two girls. "Oh yeah? How come none of the other stores have stuff like this on display?" Kristen and Kirsten had walked off, and were "eeeee"ing over a random top on display.

"Because, we were...first?" Lily managed to spit out. She hadn't thought about _that_.

Nikki saved her. "We were first, so, like, no other store wants to copy us, because everybody knows we're the original. So we basically stole all the sales!" She put on a huge, fake grin.

Chrissy's expression softened. "No way! That's so cool!"

"I know, right? Now, let's get you three into uniform!"

-

"Do we really have to wear these?" Kirsten asked.

"Yeah, and how come you guys don't have to wear them?" Kristen added in.

"Because," Lily rolled her eyes. "We mainly stick around in the back. However, _you_ guys are in the front, so you have to look the part, of course!"

"Oh, that makes sense!" Kristen giggled, taking her outfit and hopping off the the bathroom.

"Here!" Lily lifted one of the ridiculous outfits. "Kristen, put this one on!"

Kirsten rolled her eyes. "I'm KIRSTEN!"

"Whatever. Put this on!" Lily shooed her away towards the bathroom, where Chrissy and Kristen were changing.

Nikki snorted. "Glad to see I'm not the only one who gets them mixed up!"

"They look exactly the same! How can you not?"

"Well, maybe putting them in the exact same outfit wasn't such a great idea, if you're going to keep mixing them up."

Lily pulled out a makeup bag. "Don't worry, after I'm done, you'll be able to tell just fine."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Caitlin pulled her straightener through the last strand of Wyatt's hair, and then stepped back to admire her work. His large, poofy hair now lay sleek and smooth against his shoulders, dropping down just below them. She pulled out a hair tie and tied it back into a low, neat ponytail.

Caitlin squealed. "Look at your hair!" she exclaimed while handing Wyatt a mirror.

Wyatt gasped as he saw his reflection. He had never seen his hair so...smooth.

"Wow, Caitlin! How did you do this?"

Caitlin grunted. "Well, it wasn't easy. It took me well over an hour just to brush all the knots out!"

"Wow..." Wyatt ran his fingers through his hair.

"Okay, onto the next step!" Caitlin boomed, ruining Wyatt's hair moment. Caitlin picked up his hand and studied his nails. "Time to do something about these! They're disgusting!"

Wyatt whipped his hand away. "You don't mean..."

"What? Men get mani/pedis all the time!"

"Not _normal_ men!"

"Oh come on!" Caitlin grabbed Wyatt by the arm and dragged him towards the mall's salon. Wyatt screamed and attempted to pull away the entire walk, causing quite a few strange looks from the people around them.

Wyatt got tired and gave up after they had made it into the salon. A young, foreign lady turned her chair around.

"Yeeeeeeeeez?"

"Oh, hi, I made an appointment for two people at 5:30? It's under 'Cooke'."

The lady thumbed at her mouse and clicked. "Ah yeeeeeeeeez, right zees wey!"

"You have to make appointments to get your nails painted?" Wyatt whispered as they followed foreign lady to some room in the back.

"At _this_ salon you do! It's the nicest in the mall!" Caitlin whispered back.

"How many salons are in the mall? Do they really need more than one?"

"Five. I've been to them all, and this one is by far the best!"

The two found themselves in a tiny room. Candles gave the room a soft, relaxing sort of light, and a small waterfall ran in one corner.

Caitlin gave a dreamy sigh. "This room is so relaxing..."

Another foreign lady approached the two, looking slightly angry. "'EY! Only ze customears are allowed back he-a! OUT!"

Caitlin put her hand up. "No, no, no! He _is _one of your customers."

The lady began laughing.

"Oh yeah! Men get mani/pedis all the time!" Wyatt retorted sarcastically.

"Well... I guess not at this salon..."

The lady finally stopped laughing, after what seemed like ages. "Zo, you vant nails painted? Pick color!"

"No, no color. Just clip them and get it over with!"

"Okay, fine! Clear coat it eez. 'Elga! Get out 'ere! Break eez over!"

The two ladies forced the two into one of the plush chairs and began running the water for their feet.

"Is this going to hurt or anything?"

Caitlin giggled. "Relax! It's supposed to feel good! That's why so many women get them regularly!"

Wyatt leaned back in his chair. "If you say so..."

-

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! IT...TICKLES.....AHHHHH! STOP! STOP!" Wyatt screamed as the woman began to file at his feet. The other lady looked at Caitlin with a confused look.

Caitlin waved her hand into the air. "Oh, don't worry about him. He's new to this. He'll get used to it."

"I 'ope so!" the woman rolled her eyes as she kept filing, much to Wyatt's dismay.

"You call this _relaxing?_" Wyatt asked while squirming around in his chair.

"Maybe it would be if you would _be still!" _Caitlin snapped. "Seriously, man up!"

Wyatt dug his hands into his chair, and attempted to do just that.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So, how do we look?" Chrissy asked excitedly as the clones jumped back into the break room.

Nikki forced herself to smile. "Uh...great! You guys look so...uh...hot."

"EEEEEEEEE!"

"Calm down now, clones," Lily piped in from the back of the room. "We're not done yet. Come here, Kristen!"

"Why?" Kristen whined. "What are you going to do?"

Lily grinned. "A new wardrobe isn't complete without a new makeover, isn't it?"

"Whaaaaaat? Why does _Kristen_ get to go first?" Kirsten complained.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine. You can be first. Here, sit in this chair."

Lily sat Kirsten down and walked back over to Nikki, who was holding her makeup bag. Nikki snorted.

"Do you actually know what you're doing?"

Lily shrugged her shoulders. "No, not really. We'll just see how this turns out."

"Oh, this has got to be interesting!"

Lily sauntered back over towards Kirsten, who was practically about to jump out of her chair from excitement.

"Now, you're going to have to be still! You wouldn't want me to mess up, would you?"

Nikki snort-chuckled. "I don't think her being still will make a difference."

Lily shot Nikki a look and pushed Kirsten back into her chair. "Now, Nikki, hand me the foundation!"

Nikki dug through Lily's makeup bag and pulled out a bottle of bright white liquid, with a sponge attached to the cap."This it?"

"Yeah, perfect!" Lily grabbed the bottle from Nikki's hand and began pouring the creamy liquid over the sponge. "You ready to be still, now?"

Kirsten nodded in excitement.

"Okay!" Lily began to randomly dab the substance onto Kirsten's face, in no particular way. Little white sponge marks were randomly printed on Kirsten's face. Lily sighed.

"You know, this way is too slow." Lily tossed the sponge aside and began pouring the goop all over her fingers. "Let's just do it this way!"

"But that's so...ewww!" Kirsten exclaimed, leaning back in her seat a little bit.

Drops of the goop dripped like blood off of Lily's hands. A few drops plopped onto the floor. "Oh don't worry! My hands are clean!"

Without giving Kirsten a say in things she began wiping her hands all over Kirsten's face, careful not to get any into her nose or mouth.

Lily stepped back and examined her work. While there were a few patches of skin showing, most of the skin had been sufficiently covered. Good enough.

Kirsten began fanning her face. "This stuff burns! OWWW!"

Lily looked back down at the bottle. She wasn't quite sure what it was.

"What are you doing to her?!" Chrissy shouted from across the room.

"Uh...the burn is good! It's, uh, deep cleaning your pores!" Nikki chipped in. Man, was Lily glad to have her there.

"Oh...okay! Keep going!"

"Nikki, hand me the bright green eyeshadow and the eyeshadow brush!" Lily commanded. Nikki dug through her bag again and tossed her the items.

"Now, Kirsten, you're going to have to be still. This might feel weird, but trust me, I know what I'm doing!" Lily exclaimed as she dipped the brush into the eyeshadow.

Nikki rolled her eyes and fought the urge to burst out laughing.

Lily began to vigorously rub the eyeshadow brush all over Kirsten's eyelid, causing a good lot of it to spill all over her nose and under her eyes. Lily kept re-dipping the brush and applying until Kirsten's eyes were completely covered in bright green eyeshadow.

"Perfect! What do you think, Nikki?"

Nikki put both of her thumbs up. "It looks great! Oh, don't forget the eyelashes!" Nikki tossed Lily her eyelash curler and some mascara.

"Of course! What good would a makeover be without the eyelashes?" Lily began to curl Kirsten's eyelashes until they were at a full ninety degree angle, then applied a ton of mascara, causing them to curl up even more.

"And let's not forget the final touch!" Nikki exclaimed while tossing Lily some deep black lipstick. Lily carelessly applied it all over her lips, not bothering to clean the smudges. Lily stepped back and admired her work.

"Oh my god, you look so cute!" Lily fake gushed.

"We wanna see!" the other two clones shouted from the end of the room. Kirsten swiveled her chair around and stood up.

"EEEEE!" Chrissy shouted. "You _do_ look cute!"

"Oh _so _cute!" Kristen added in.

"You're like, adorable!"

"EEEEEEEEEEE!"

Lily and Nikki covered their mouths, having to fight with all of their might to not break down into total hysterics.

"What's with the bright green eyeshadow, anyways?" Nikki asked.

Lily pulled out things of blue and purple eyeshadow, and dangled them in her hand. "We have to tell them apart somehow, don't we?"

"I want to go next!"Chrissy shouted.

"No, me!" Kristen whined.

Lily beckoned Kristen over to the chair. "Here, Kirsten, you can go next!" Lily was happy that she could _finally_ tell them apart. This idea was working perfectly!

"I'm KRISTEN!"

Or maybe not.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Wyatt looked at his nails and grinned. Instead of being long, dirty, and broken, they were clean and neat. Caitlin walked alongside him, sporting bright pink nail polish on both her fingers and her toes.

"Wow, Caitlin! Thanks!" Wyatt exclaimed, not taking his eyes off of his new nails.

Caitlin waved her hand into the air. "Oh it's no problem! I'm just glad you finally stopped whining after the first thirty minutes!"

"Hey, that was really uncomfortable!" Wyatt said rather defensively. Caitlin rolled her eyes.

"Sure, whatever. Now, onto the third and final step!" Caitlin squealed as they re approached the Lemon.

Wyatt scrunched his nose up. "We're not done?"

"No, silly! A new hair-do and nails are just the cherry on top! To complete the makeover, you need some new outfits!"

"Why? What's wrong with the clothes I have?"

Caitlin placed her index finger onto her lips. "They're just so...Wyatt-y! We don't any 'old Wyatt' left, now do we?"

"Cait, this is an awful lot of trouble for just one girl, don't you think?"

Caitlin leaned closer to Wyatt. "I thought you really liked her! You want her to notice you, right?"

Wyatt groaned. "Okay, fine. Where do we begin?"

Caitlin pulled out a stack of magazines and began thumbing through them. She pulled one out of the stack and opened it to a page with several different guys. Caitlin beamed.

"Let's start by picking your style! Now, which one do you think you fit the most in?"

Wyatt studied the page. There were only six guys on the page, none of them really looking like anything Wyatt would want to ever dress in.

"There's only six to choose from...not a very good selection..."

"Six? Oh no! Those are just the starting categories!" Caitlin flipped through the pages. "See? There are lots of sub categories as well as sub-sub categories, and a few different styles to pick within each sub-sub. And there's also some pages that combine sub categories and some that even combine categories!" Caitlin finished flipping. "Just pick one you like!"

Wyatt stared at the magazine in total silence.

"Uh, Caitlin? How many different styles are there to choose from?"

Caitlin giggled. "One thousand, one hundred and twenty-eight! Get looking!"

"I can't possibly pick from all of those!"

Caitlin rolled her eyes. "It's not _that_ hard to look at pictures, Wyatt. Just pick one!"

Wyatt grunted. "Fine." He randomly flipped through all the pages and randomly pointed at a random one. "Here. I pick this one."

Caitlin looked at Wyatt's pick and cringed. The model was wearing a black leather jacket and matching leather pants, along with several piercings and chains. "Uh, Wyatt? You sure about that?"

Wyatt glanced at his pick and bounced back. "Oh. Er. Never mind. Let me pick again."

Wyatt began his random flipping again, and pointed at another random model. "Here, how about this one?"

The model was wearing a shirt that fully exposed his slightly tattoo-covered arms, and a pair of beat up jeans.

"Ooh, this is perfect!" Caitlin gushed. "The artsy hippie independent look! Oh that's _so _perfect for your new hair! Great pick!"

"Wait what?" Wyatt studied the look he had picked and turned his nose up a little. "Actually, I think I'm going to pick something else..."

"No!" Caitlin shouted. "This is perfect! Let's go with this one! Eeeee! You're going to look GREAT!"

"But-"

"Come on! I know the perfect store. It just opened across from the Khaki Barn. Let's go!" Caitlin grabbed Wyatt's hand and dragged him along towards the store.

"Inspiration...that's it? That's what they call themselves?" Wyatt asked as they casually walked into the store. New Age music was playing softly in the background, while the walls were covered in tie-dye T-shirts that were tacked into the wall. A man (or a woman, neither of them could really tell) approached the two with a peaceful smile on his/her face. He/she held it's hand out and gave a slight bow.

"Welcome, my friends, to...Inspiration....!" The unidentifiable whispered while waving a hand through the air. Judging from the high pitched voice, it was a girl, but they honestly couldn't tell.

Caitlin gave a dreamy gasp. "This store is _so_ cute! This is perfect!"

Wyatt scrunched his nose up. "I...don't know about this store, Caitlin. It seems...freaky..."

The unidentifiable put a hand on Wyatt's shoulder. "Dude, you need to learn to be...open. Explore the several pathways of life you can choose from. The options are endless. Being narrow will get you nowhere..."

Wyatt jerked his shoulder away from the person. "This is a clothing store. It's not like I'm going to be making any major life decisions!"

The unidentifiable cupped it's hand over towards Caitlin. "The poor guy, he's stuck living a life of narrow minded-ness."

Caitlin nodded her head. "Oh I know! Don't worry, I'll do my best to get through to him!"

The unidentifiable cupped it's hands together and bowed. "Bless your soul, and may your kindness reach many."

Caitlin giggled and grabbed onto Wyatt's shoulders. "Awww, thank you! Now, do you have any clothes to help this poor boy out? I'm giving him a makeover!"

Wyatt leaned towards Caitlin a bit, who was behind him. "I think you're getting a little _too_ into this creepy hippie vibe..." he whispered. Caitlin dismissed him.

The unidentifiable led them over to a small corner of the store. "Here! This is our 'beginner' section. Perfect for the narrow minded. Might I suggest a couple of shirts?"

Caitlin clapped her hands. "Oh that would be awesome!"

"I really don't know about-"

Wyatt was shushed by the unidentifiable. "Don't think about it. Just look... and fall in love..."

"Uh..."

The unidentifiable pulled out several shirts from the stack. He handed the stack to Caitlin and picked one up, spreading it out to full view. It was pink and purple tie dyed with rainbows covering a good portion of it, and one big peace sign in the center.

Caitlin cringed. "We'll have to pass on that one... It's a bit tacky..."

The unidentifiable tossed the shirt aside in anger. "What happened to being open minded, huh?! I bet you're just another one of those typical preppy teenagers who shop at those typical stores and buy typical clothes and don't even give new stores like this one a chance!"

Wyatt backed away. "Whoa, dude, chill! She just said she didn't like the shirt...no big deal!"

The unidentifiable growled. "I have never met such narrow minded people, even in my days as a male! I have half a mind to call security on you two!"

Caitlin laughed nervously. "We're, uh, gonna...go now. Bye!"

The two ran out of the store and practically ran across the entire mall. Completely out of breath, the two took a seat by the Lemon, which was nowhere near the crazy store.

"Okay, let's never do that again!" Wyatt exclaimed between breaths. Caitlin nodded in agreement, frowning slightly.

"You still need a new look, though!"

"Caitlin, I look fine! Don't I?"

"Here, just stand up for a second!"

"Why?"

"Just do it!"

Wyatt stood up from his chair, Caitlin following. She tucked in a section of his shirt and pulled his pants down just a bit, and then removed his sneakers.

Wyatt looked down at his bare feet. "You expect me to walk around barefoot? Can you even do that?"

Caitlin rolled her eyes and giggled. "No, silly! Here!" She tossed him a pair of black flip flops toward him. "You look like you're about my shoe size! Try those on!"

Wyatt turned his nose up. "Flip flops? That's a little...out there."

"Just try them on!"

Wyatt dropped the shoes onto the floor and slid them into his feet. They were a perfect fit, and surprisingly comfortable.

"Hey...these actually aren't that bad..."

Caitlin smiled. "And they go perfectly with your new look!" She took a good long look at the new Wyatt. He had gone from goofy to sophisticated in less than six hours.

"Eeeee! Wyatt! You look great!"

"Really?" His face lit up. "You think Ariel will notice?"

"Oh definitely! Now, lets practice that walk one more time..."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hey! Welcome to the Khaki Barn!" Kristen shouted to random people passing by as she attempted to dance to the thrashing music that was blaring from the store.

"Yeah, check out our brand new style!" Kirsten agreed, also attempting to dance. They were receiving many strange looks, and many more excited ones from young girls.

Meanwhile, in the back, Lily and Nikki were actually forced to do real work, running both cash registers as fast as they could to meet the sudden customer demand.

"Wow, I never thought this new Khaki Barn would get so many customers! I was expecting to chill this week!"

Nikki rolled her eyes. "It's just because they all think they're out of style, so they're taking the chance to update themselves. I'm sure things will calm back down in a couple of weeks."

"Well at the rate we're going we'll have to start putting people on back order and order more inventory from Red Hot Gossip when the week is over!"

Nikki shrugged. "At least we're getting major sales. Who knows, maybe Chrissy will hire you as her new assistant manager! And then you can give me fifteen breaks per shift like I keep asking for!"

Lily gave her a playful glare. "Please, if I become your boss, you're not getting _any_ breaks. No way are you leaving me in here all alone with the clones!"

The two girls heard an "Eeeee!" from behind them, and turned around to see Chrissy with several shirts in hand.

"Oh my god, guys! Look! I took some of our _old_ merch and made it stylish! What do you think?" She held out a gray t-shirt with black ink spilled all over it and several holes throughout the entire thing. Lily nodded in approval.

"That's great work, Chrissy! Keep doing that!"

Chrissy nodded and skipped a couple of inches, before catching herself and stomping slowly back to the break room.

"Well, looks like you won't need to order any more inventory! Chrissy can just make everything for us!" Nikki snort-snickered.

Kristen and Kirsten came running up from the front of the store. Their faces were twice as large as normal and the white makeup was stretched out. They were both fanning their faces.

"Uh, Lily? We don't mean to complain or anything but..." Kristen started.

"Our faces are burning up!" Kirsten shouted.

"What brand of makeup was that?!"

Lily looked down at the empty, blank bottle she had used. She honestly had no idea what it had contained.

"Uh, not sure... Here, lets go back to the break room and wash the makeup off, okay?"

"HURRY!" Kirsten screamed, shoving the entire staff towards the break room.

Lily led them over to the small sink in the back corner of the room and further examined the bottle.

"Seriously, Lily, what _is_ that?" Nikki asked with a quizzical look on her face.

"I...don't know. There's no label anywhere! I found it in one of my dad's bags, and I figured it was some old makeup of Mom's that he had accidentally packed with him, so I brought it over."

Nikki grabbed the bottle and twisted and turned it until she found some text on the bottom. "Authentic Goat Paste. Made from the finest goat milk and other natural ingredients found on the island. Great for cooking!" Nikki read aloud. "I think you just spread goat paste all over the clones."

Lily covered her mouth with her hand. "Crap! That's right! That was the stuff my dad brought back home from his trip to that exotic island...Oh man, do you think I killed the clones or something?"

"I highly doubt that, unfortunately." Nikki snickered. "They're probably just allergic to the goat milk in it. No big deal."

"I sure hope so..."

Kirsten and Kristen sauntered back over towards Nikki and Lily after washing their faces. They were now bright red, with several bumps on their face.

"Is it bad?" Kristen asked.

Nikki faked a smile and coughed a bit. "No, it's perfectly fine! You guys will be completely normal in no time!"

"What caused this?" Kirsten whined.

"Well, see...the makeup I used had goat milk in it, which is, uh, good for your pores. But I think you two are allergic to it. So I guess we shouldn't use it anymore," Lily explained.

"No way!" Kristen shouted.

"We're like, both allergic to the same thing! That's like, _so_ cool!" Kirsten squealed.

"EEEEEE!"

Chrissy looked slightly upset. "Awww, no fair! I want to be allergic too!"

"Awww!" both girls embraced Chrissy in a hug. "You'll find something we're all allergic too one day!"

"Oh my god, we haven't been dancing outside!" Kirsten shouted with a worried look on her face.

"We're probably losing customers! Let's go!" Kristen screamed as both girls ran out of the break room.

Lily let out a nervous giggle. "I'm not...fired for this am I?"

Chrissy laughed. "Why would you be fired? You've helped sales, like, majorly! You can't help it if someone is, like, allergic to something! I'm going to go make more clothes now, bye!" Chrissy stomped out of the room.

Lily sighed with relief. The plan was still going as expected.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Wyatt began to feel his throat tighten up as he and Caitlin walked towards Grind Me. He could barely speak.

Caitlin seemed to sense his nerves. "Don't be nervous, Wyatt! It's just one person! If she thinks you're a flake, well, that's her problem!"

"But... do you think I overdid it a little bit? I mean, I changed my look overnight!"

"Don't worry, Wyatt! You don't look _that_ different! You just look more...sophisticated! It will work, I promise!"

"What do I say to her?"

"Ooh! Ask her if she wants to hang out with you at the Zamboni Girl contest next Saturday! Perfectly casual! Seriously, you might want to. You're going to be all alone!"

"Wait why? I thought I was going to hang out with the gang?"

Caitlin felt guilt slightly creep up on her face. "Oh...about that...see, Jen, Nikki, Jonesy, and Jude are judging, Lily's hosting, and I volunteered to help backstage. So you're all alone!"

"Gee, thanks. Why didn't you ask me to help out?"

"We couldn't think of any help needed. But whatever! Now's your chance! Go!" Caitlin shoved Wyatt into Grind Me. Remembering the walk he and Caitlin had practiced, he sauntered in, trying his best to look confident. Ariel smiled as she saw him approach.

"Hey Wyatt! You're a bit early for work! What's up?"

"Wait, you're actually talking to me?" Wyatt looked surprised.

Ariel gave him an odd look. "Yeah...why wouldn't I?"

"Well, you seemed pretty embarrassed with me after, you know, yesterday..."

Ariel laughed a little. "Oh that? Don't worry about it! I'm the _hugest_ klutz in the world! That happens to me like every week!"

Wyatt let out a giggle of relief. "So, no awkward feelings or anything?"

"Of course not!" She studied Wyatt a little more. "You look different than yesterday...but... I like it...do you straighten you hair often?"

Wyatt ran his fingers through his hair. "I can start! My friend did it for me... do you like it?"

Ariel smiled. "It looks good on you... you really should do that more often..."

They both sat in a comfortable silence for a couple of minutes. Finally, Wyatt spoke up.

"Hey, are you going to the Zamboni Girl show next Saturday? Maybe we could meet up and hang out!"

Ariel smiled. "That sounds great!"


	4. Part Three

**A/N: Sorry this took me so long! Some issues came up with the family and I didn't have as much time to write. But things are all good now, so I should be faster with the last chapter.  
****Yes, that's right, we're almost done! Woohoo! Now that the story is almost done (and I've gotten lots of views), I'd really like you guys to review and tell me what you think! Anonymous reviews are allowed, so you don't have to log in or make an account to review. You can say anything you'd like! I don't mind if you hate the story :). I just want to know opinions!  
So, enough of my rambling. I go on for way too long. Let's continue with the story!  
Disclaimer: If I owned it, it wouldn't be on "fanfiction" would it? :)  
**

**XXXXXXXXXXXX **

Lily coughed rather loudly as Caitlin began dabbing makeup all over her face, rather violently. Finally, when her lungs couldn't handle it anymore, she pulled away.

"Caitlin! I think you're...overdoing it a little..." Lily stated between coughs.

Caitlin pulled back defensively, putting her hands, which were still clutching onto the powder and brush, onto her hips. "How is a little powder overdoing it?"

Lily rolled her eyes and stood up. "It's not just the powder! It's all...this!" Lily pointed all over herself. She was wearing a semi-formal black dress that ended just above her knees, with black strappy heels, and a large necklace that ended near the top of her stomach. Her long, wavy hair had been tied up into a fancy updo that had taken Caitlin nearly an hour to construct. Her usual heavy eyeliner had been replaced with beige shades of eyeshadow and a light amount of dark brown eyeliner on her bottom lids, along with what felt like a pound of face makeup and several coats of bright red lipstick. This was _not_ what she had signed up for.

Lily sighed. "Besides, you're supposed to be helping the _talent_. I'm only on stage for, like, five seconds at a time!"

"But you're the M.C.!" Caitlin beamed. "You _have_ to look like a star! They always do!"

"Caitlin, this is just a little talent show. We probably won't even have fifty people out there, and most of the people who do show up will be the excited mothers. I do _not_ need to get dressed up!"

Caitlin widened her eyes. "Have you _seen_ what it's like out there? Go look!" She shoved Lily towards the front of the stage, where she peeked through the curtain. She couldn't believe her eyes.

At least two hundred people had shown up early, and were sitting excitedly in their chairs. Jen, who was wearing all black, was guiding some random people (crew members?) on where to put certain decorations and where to shine certain lights, while Jonesy, who was also dressed in all black, was guiding a few people on the sound cues in the sound booth. A camera crew had even positioned several fancy looking cameras around the stage. It looked more like the stage from American Idol.

Lily closed the curtain, eyes wide open. "Wow. I'm surprised. They went to quite the effort...what are the cameras for, anyways? Are they taping the show to give to the contestants?"

Caitlin squealed. "No! The show is going to be on the local news channel! Can you believe that? This made it on to T.V!"

Lily rested her head into her hand, taking a seat in a nearby chair. "This is just some stupid little talent show! How did it get all of this...hype?"

"I told you Zamboni Dude was sort of a big thing around here! Crazy, right?"

Jonesy lifted the curtain and sauntered in from outside, sporting a headset. He was slightly taken aback when he noticed Lily and her new look.

"Whoa, Lily, you, uh, don't look like you!" Jonesy exclaimed, causing Lily to grumble.

"You can thank Caitlin for that. She spent nearly three hours on all of this! And she completely ignored the talent!"

Jonesy waved a hand in the air. "Oh whatever. They can makeover themselves. Besides, if an act totally bombs, we need someone to look pretty and save the whole thing, right?"

Lily sighed. "Sure. Whatever."

Jonesy glanced at his watch. "Okay, we have exactly one hour until the show begins." Jonesy pulled out a piece of paper from the back of his pocket. "Here's the list of each act and a brief description. You're going to have to memorize each description during each of the acts, if you can. If you lose this sheet, we have several of them taped around here, and one onstage if you completely blank out, but it's dark back here, so you'll have to read it with a cell phone or something. When you walk out there, grab the microphone from the stand and do your little spiel about each act. Remember, there is going to be a big audience, so always stand up straight and put on a cheesy smile! Can you handle things? Because I need to go make sure our light and sound crew have everything under control!"

Lily nodded slowly, attempting to take in everything Jonesy had said. She studied the sheet of paper and noticed the rather alarming number of acts.

"Fifty seven acts?!" Lily shouted.

"Fifty seven?" Jonesy asked while putting his hand on his forehead. "The other page must've come off! Here..." Jonesy dug through his pocket, pulling out a wrinkled piece of paper. "These are the acts after intermission."

Lily gasped. The count was now up to one hundred and two.

"Jonesy! Nobody wants to sit through one hundred and two acts! This show will be going until like three in the morning!"

Jonesy opened up the curtain. "They won't have to 'sit' through it. There's bunches of activities and giveaways going towards the back, see?" Jonesy pointed towards the several little booths being set up in the back. "Besides, there are lots of really cool lighting and sound effects to keep people entertained. It will all be just fine!"

Lily felt like her eyes were going to pop out of her head. "Where did you find the money to hire a whole crew? And people to run activities? Do you have, like, rich parents or something? How much money did they give you for this?"

Caitlin nodded. "Lily does have a point. This is a bit...much..."

Jonesy shrugged. "It was pretty cheap. I convinced the light and sound crew from school to help out, and the people in the booths paid _us. _It's like, publicity for their businesses or something. I don't know."

Both girls were speechless.

Jonesy glanced down at his watch. "Okay, I seriously need to get back out there. Can you girls handle things?"

Lily and Caitlin both nodded silently. Jonesy paced away without saying another word.

"Wow..." Caitlin managed to say. "I never knew Jonesy had it in him to pull something so big off!"

Lily shrugged and snorted. "He's probably in it for all the money. Why else would he go to all this trouble?"

Caitlin nodded. "Oh, that's true."

Lily peered out the curtain. "Where are Nikki and Jude, anyways?"

Caitlin waved her hand through the air. "Oh! They're up front selling tickets..." Caitlin guided Lily towards the other end of the backstage area, and opened a door, revealing a rather large line of screaming fans, along with Nikki and Jude sitting behind a counter type thing, selling tickets. Well, Jude was selling the tickets. Nikki was napping in her chair.

"They just keep coming and coming! Do we even have enough room for all these people?" Lily asked.

"I'm sure we'll find room! Besides, the important thing is to make sure they're all entertained!" Caitlin studied Lily once more. "I think you need just _one_ more coat of powder..."

The girls suddenly heard a crash from behind. They had completely forgotten about the actual talent. They turned around and noticed pure chaos between the girls. Some were crying, some were rocking back and forth, some were attempting at (and failing at) doing each others makeup, and some were being just plain spastic.

"Caitlin... I really think you need to go calm them down. That's what you're here for, remember? Not to apply fifty million coats of powder onto my face!"

"Okay, fine!" Caitlin sulked. "You've got to help me though! There's no way I can get to all of these girls before the show starts!"

Lily sighed. This was going to be a long night.

-

Jen took a sip from her complementary water bottle and studied the light fixtures. Everything looked perfect. She had spent the last hour and a half going over how the lighting would look for each act with the lighting crew, giving them each copies of her detailed sketches she had constructed over the entire week.

Jonesy peered over her shoulder from behind, giving a cursory glance over the sketches. "What you got there, Jen?"

Jen turned around and placed her sketches in Jonesy's hands. "Detailed sketches of each act's lighting works. It took me all week!"

Jonesy thumbed through the papers, surprised at the effort Jen had put forth. "Wow, Sis! You went to quite the effort here! And I thought you were all skeptical about this whole thing..."

Jen shrugged and smiled. "If I'm going to help with one of your stupid schemes, I might as well make it good, right? Besides, I didn't have very much homework this week, and I had the week off from work. What else was I supposed to do?"

"Uh, normal teenage things?"

Jen rolled her eyes and ignored Jonesy's comment. "How are ticket sales going?"

Jonesy shrugged. "Why don't you go and check?"

Jen set down her water bottle and shuffled towards the front of the theater, where tickets were being sold. She noticed a rather long line behind Jude, along with a few fans crowding around him, attempting to look important, and nobody behind Nikki. As she stepped closer she noticed Nikki had dosed off. Typical Nikki.

"Jude!" Jen exclaimed from behind him, causing him to jolt up in his chair a little.

"Whoa, brah, lower your voice! You're harshing my vibe..." Jude replied as he handed a ticket to the man standing in front of him.

"How come you haven't woken Nikki up? There's no way you can get tickets to all these people in time for the show!"

Jude slowly moved his eyes across to Nikki, who was snoring and even drooling a bit in the corner of her mouth. "Oh! She's asleep! I just thought we had a truck load of ticket sales...hehehehehe..."

Jen rolled her eyes and smiled. _That_ was typical Jude. She grabbed Nikki's shoulders and began gently shaking them, causing Nikki's eyes to pop open.

"Whoa, what's going on? Where am I?" Nikki asked as she scratched her head.

Jen giggled. "You're supposed to be selling tickets. There's a long line, so you might want to get back to that."

Nikki groaned. "Oh. Right. Sorry. There's another line open over here, guys!"

The crowd gave a small cheer as they divided themselves up.

Jen glanced down at her cell phone. "Okay, we've got half an hour until show time, guys, so sell as fast as you can! Try not to make any small talk, just sell the ticket and let them in, okay?"

-

Wyatt smiled as he peered down at Ariel, who returned his smile. Both of them had been at a comfortable silence for several minutes now.

Finally, Ariel decided to speak. "I'm really glad we could hang out together tonight. This is going to be fun!"

Wyatt's smile widened. "Yeah...me too."

"My sister is in it, you know. She's going to be doing a little dance number. She's so excited!"

Wyatt chuckled. "Oh, really? How old is she?"

"She's twelve. She just _loves_ Zamboni Dude. She even stole a poster from one of the mall displays and hung it up on her wall. It's crazy!"

Wyatt smirked. Sometimes he just couldn't believe how big his friend had gotten.

Wyatt noticed his blonde friend relaxing in a chair as they approached the front of the line. Several young girls were crowding excitedly around him, as if he were a huge celebrity, and not just some local zamboni driver.

"Man, can you believe some of these people? They're insane!" Ariel exclaimed, giggling slightly. "I mean, he's just a normal guy, right?"

Wyatt nodded. "I know. I always wonder how he stays so calm with all those girls following him around all the time!"

"Well at least we're mature and we don't get freaked out when we encounter a local celebrity, right?"

Wyatt smiled. "Right."

Jude grinned as the two made it to the front of the line. "Wyatt! Dude! It's so nice to see a familiar face! Some of these people are _seriously_ freaking me out!"

Wyatt laughed. "Why are _you_ selling tickets, anyways? Aren't there other things to do?"

Jude groaned. "Jonesy made me sell the tickets. Apparently I'm too 'spaced out' to do any of the important stuff. But whatever, bro."

"Well, anyways, I need two tickets, please."

Jude pulled two tickets out from the bin beside him. "Here! They're free. Have fun with your date tonight, dude!" Jude exclaimed, winking and giving his usual slow chuckle.

As they walked away from the ticket booth, Ariel, who had been speechless the entire time, finally spoke.

"You _know_ Zamboni Dude?! Like personally?!"

Wyatt chuckled. "Jude? We've been best friends since, like, Kindergarten! Way before all of this stupid Zamboni Dude stuff began..."

Wyatt was cut off by Ariel's loud "EEEEEEEEE!" and jumping up and down. So much for 'maturity'.

"That is _so_ cool! Oh my god! I'm on a date with a guy who's friends with a _celebrity! _EEEEE!"

"I thought you said it was no big deal. He's not really a celebrity, you know..."

"I said all that maturity stuff _before_ I knew you were friends with him! This is so beyond cool! You have _no_ idea!"

The two fell silent. Or, rather, Wyatt stood in thought, trying to figure out how to respond, while Ariel squealed to herself.

"Uh, well, anyways...lets go grab some food and a seat. The show starts in fifteen minutes, so we better grab a chair before they're all gone!"

"Oh...okay..." Ariel answered, obviously not paying much attention to what Wyatt had said.

The two of them each bought a small popcorn and a soda from one of the several little booths stationed around the theater. As they took their seats, Wyatt took a good look around the place. Several large, glittery decorations were hung neatly around the entire place. And the stage...the stage looked like it came straight from Hollywood! Wyatt couldn't believe that _Jonesy_ had thrown something like this together.

Wyatt felt a light tap on his shoulder, causing him to snap out of it. He turned to his side and noticed Ariel, grinning practically from ear to ear.

"You said that you were friends with Zamboni Dude, right? Does this mean you're friends with the other judges?"

"Jonesy, Jen, and Nikki? We've all been best friends since Kindergarten, actually..."

Ariel put on a mischievous grin. "So...do you think you would have any...influence on the decision they make?"

Wyatt shrugged. "Sure, I guess I would. Why do you ask?"

"Well, see..." Ariel put on a sort of begging looking face. "My sister has been working really, really hard to prepare for this competition and it would just _break_ her heart if her effort went in vain..."

Wyatt shot her a quizzical look. "So...what are you trying to say?"

"Do you think you could convince the judges to...you know..." she leaned in closer, avoiding any angry mothers that might be listening in. "Pick her to be Zamboni Girl?"

Wyatt leaned back. "I don't know, Ariel. That wouldn't be very fair to the other competition, would it?"

"Well, sure it could be! I mean, there are just _so _many acts and I just want to make sure that the judges notice my sister. I mean, with so many competitors, it is just so easy to forget so many of them, and we wouldn't want that to happen to my sister, would we? After all that hard work she went through..."

"Well..."

Ariel put on a rather animated begging face. "Oh, please Wyatt? I'm not asking for much, really. Besides..." She leaned even closer, hugging Wyatt's arm. "If she wins because of this, I would really, really like you for it."

Deep down, Wyatt knew something bad would probably come from this, but as he gazed down into Ariel's bright, beautiful blue eyes, he couldn't resist. How bad could things really go? And if things worked, Ariel would be all his...

"Okay, okay, I'll talk to them during intermission..."

Ariel squealed, wrapping her hands around Wyatt and kissing him on the cheek. "You're the best! Oh, it's going to be so much fun telling everybody that Zamboni Girl is my sister! I can't wait!"

-

_Okay. Five minutes until show time. You can do this, Lily! Just ignore the cameras and audience members. You can do this!_

Lily paced back and forth from behind the curtain. She could feel her breathing getting quicker and butterflies were raging through her stomach.

She felt a small hand on her shoulder. She turned around and noticed Caitlin, with a sympathetic smile on her face.

"Nervous?"

Lily nodded, too nervous to even speak.

"Oh, don't worry about it, you're going to do great! Like you said, you're only on for a few seconds at a time. Besides, if it helps, you look amazing!"

Lily sighed. "There's cameras out there! And like a billion people! If I do something stupid the entire town will know!"

"Calm down, Lily! You won't do anything stupid. All you have to do is read what Jonesy wrote, and look pretty! How could you _possibly_ mess that up?"

Lily smiled. "You have a point. Let's hope this all goes down well."

A random man in an all black ensemble popped in from the room next to the stage. "Three minutes until show time, ladies! Lily, are you ready?"

"I think so!" Lily put up her thumbs for believability.

"Now remember, we have lots of acts to get through tonight, so make it as quick and speedy as possible! And don't forget your cheesy smile!" The man closed the door, leaving Caitlin and Lily alone.

Caitlin handed Lily a microphone and gave her hair one last quick coat of hairspray before shoving her towards the edge of the curtain. "I've got to go make sure our first few acts are ready. Good luck!" Caitlin whispered before dashing away. Lily took one last deep breath.

"Welcome, and thanks for coming to our first annual Zamboni Girl contest! Here's your host, Lily McIntyre!"

Lily heard cheering from the crowd, and somehow forced her shaking legs to walk onto the stage, attempting to shake off the nerves flying around her body.

As she paced to the center of the stage, she attempted to guess how many people were in the crowd, although with the bright spotlights flashing in her eyes it was hard to tell. She could see several cameras pointed directly at her, causing a slight jump in her stomach.

_Remember, Lily, cheesy smile!_

Lily gave the hugest smile she could muster under the pressure. She could even feel some of her makeup cracking.

_Don't keep people waiting for too long! Speak!_

"Uh, hello ladies and gentlemen! Thanks for coming out tonight! I'm your host, Lily McIntyre!"

She paused as the crowd let out a small cheer.

"Tonight, we will be watching as one hundred and two acts battle it out on stage talent show style in order to receive the coveted title of Zamboni Girl! The winner will be picked between our four judges..." Lily heaved a small sigh of relief as a few of the blinding lights scanned over to the judge's panel.

"Jen...Nikki...Jonesy...and none other than Zamboni Dude himself!"

More cheering.

"So, without further ado, let's begin! Our first contestant will be Stacy Black, who is twelve years old, performing a violin solo! Stacy has been learning violin for over eight years, and is very excited to showcase her skills tonight. So, everybody give it up for Stacy!"

The crowd began cheering as an awkward looking girl with greasy hair and thick glasses stepped on stage with a violin. Lily took this as her cue to get off the stage and dashed towards the curtain.

_That wasn't so bad...in fact, it was kind of fun! _Lily thought as she made it backstage. Four other girls were lined up near the curtain, looking extremely nervous. She guessed Caitlin was further backstage, getting the other talent calmed down.

"You guys ready?" Lily whispered as she pulled out the list of talent so she could memorize the next few sentences. The girls nodded silently, too nervous to say anything.

_Okay, so next is Amber Donaldson and Rosie Gomez, both fifteen, performing a short dance to the Jonas Brother's SOS. _Lily scrunched up her nose. _Fifteen? Aren't they a little old for music like that?_

She eyed two girls wearing pigtails and bright colored sweat pants, peering out the curtain rather nervously. She hopped off the stool and put one hand on each girl's shoulder.

"Don't worry, guys, you'll do great!" Lily whispered. She noticed the screeching violin music had come to a halt, and was replaced with cheering in the crowd, which Lily took as her cue to introduce the next act. She pushed the two girls aside and stepped back on stage.

Lily put on another cheesy smile and forced herself to clap, as if overly enthusiastic about Stacy's violin act.

"Wasn't that just fantastic, everybody? Well, our next act is a short dance, performed by Amber Donaldson and Rosie Gomez, who are both fifteen. While neither of the girls have taken any formal dance lessons, the both of them love to dance and act goofy for fun, and both feel they have acquired enough dancing skills to show off for the public. So, give it up for Amber and Rosie!"

The crowd began cheering some more, and the two girls nervously stepped on stage.

Lily took her place back at the stool and noticed another girl, sitting in fetal position, rolling back and forth.

Lily decided to attempt to calm her down before the next act. She tip toed over to the rocking girl and squatted down beside her.

"What's the matter?"

The girl looked up with bloodshot eyes. "Those girls back there are telling the younger girls that we're too young and stupid to win this contest and to just go home now..."

Lily sighed. She hadn't expected any annoying backstage drama. Where was the backstage assistant?

She placed a hand on the little girl's shoulder. "Don't listen to them. They're probably, uh, insecure about their act because they're not as well prepared. Just go out there and do your best, and don't let their words get to you, okay?"

The girl wiped a tear away from her eye. "I'll try. I don't know. I'm nervous..."

"What's your name?"

"Mazy Goodwen."

I glanced down at my act sheet, noticing that she was next, and judging by the song outside, it was about time for her to go out.

"Well, Mazy, you're up next, so just try your best. Take a deep breath and imagine yourself doing absolutely wonderful out there, okay?"

Mazy gave a blank nod as the music cut off and the crowd began cheering outside. Lily patted her knee gently, beckoning her to stand up.

"I've got to go out there and introduce you, okay? Get by the curtain and be ready!"

Lily darted back onto the stage and pasted on yet another cheesy smile and forced another fake clap. "That was great, girls! Great dancing skills! Up next is Mazy Goodwen, who is eleven years old, performing an original, a cappella song called 'Monkey Socks'! Let's give it up for Mazy!"

The crowd began cheering some more. Lily looked to both of her sides. Mazy was nowhere in site. She would probably have to push her on the stage.

As she wandered towards the edge of the stage, she noticed Mazy clinging nervously to the edge of the curtain, refusing to budge. Lily rolled her eyes and trudged closer.

"What are you doing?" Lily whispered.

"I'm...too nervous..."

"Look, Mazy. I know you're nervous but what's the worst that could happen? There's always a risk to everything in life, but sometimes you just have to suck it up and take the chance, right? Plus, you wouldn't want those mean girls laughing at you for chickening out, would you? Go on, you can do it!" Mazy smiled as Lily gave her a light shove.

Lily shuffled back to her stool and began rubbing her throbbing temples. She didn't know how much more of this she could take.

_Three down, ninety-nine to go. I sure hope I can make it._

-

Nikki rolled her eyes as the next wanna-be stepped off the stage. She had already sat through twenty three idiotic acts, including stupid dances, singing that made you want to grab ear buds before you went deaf, the occasional stupid skit with cheesy punch lines, and a few strange acts, such as a group spitball show. She didn't know how many more of these she could sit through.

The other three seemed perfectly fine with the boring talent. Jen was leaning against the table, as if eager to see more. Jonesy was leaning back in his chair, counting some of the money, and Jude...well, Nikki was never sure what Jude was doing.

"How many more acts until intermission?" Nikki whispered to Jen, who was seated next to her.

Jen looked down at the sheet of contestants, where she had jotted down detailed comments on each act. "Thirty four until intermission, and then forty five more acts after intermission."

Nikki groaned. "Wake me when it's over!"

Jen lightly slapped Nikki on the arm. "You can't fall asleep! Can you imagine how discouraging that would be to the contestants?"

"But this is so boring! I'm sick of watching little tweens go up there and embarrass themselves!"

As the last of the applause died down, Nikki watched as Lily bounced onto the stage once more.

"For our next act, let's welcome Maria Petticord, who is sixty six years old and will be showcasing her skills in traditional yodeling! Give it up for Maria!"

Nikki leaned back into her chair, groaning. Was this some sort of joke?

She felt a light tap on her arm. She popped her seat back up and turned her head towards Jen, who was leaning in slightly.

"Wasn't there a maximum age on the poster?" Jen asked.

Nikki eyed a poster that was hanging somewhere nearby, and read the requirements.

"It only says you have to be eleven...nothing about a maximum age..."

Jen snorted. "I wonder how many more old ladies we're going to get..."

"Hey, it can't be as bad as those annoying teenie boppers we've been forced to sit through..."

The girls suddenly heard a loud SCREECH and a "YO-DEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-LAAAAAAYYYYYYYY" coming from the stage. It was so loud that Nikki involuntarily grabbed her ears for protection.

"Okay, so, maybe they can be..." Nikki murmured, eyes wide open.

-

Wyatt let out a heartfelt clap as the next act walked off the stage. He still wasn't bored, even after sitting through fifty-seven whole acts. There was something about talent shows that always piqued his interest, even if it _was_ filled with a bunch of twelve and thirteen year olds.

Ariel, however, wasn't exactly showing the same enthusiasm as Wyatt was. She was slouching in her chair, picking a tiny piece out of the inside of her perfectly manicured index fingernail. After she managed to pull out a small chunk, she looked up at Wyatt.

"Is my sister about to go on?"

Wyatt pulled out his copy of the list of acts. "No, not yet. We're about to have an intermission. After that, four more acts and then it's your sister."

Ariel smiled. "Yay! I can't wait! You're still going to talk to the judges during intermission, right?"

Wyatt let out a nervous sigh. "Oh. Yeah. Of course! Your sister is going to win for sure. They'll do anything for me."

Ariel squealed. "You're the best, Wyatt!"

After the applause died down, he watched as Lily walked back onto the stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the first half of our night tonight. We will now have a thirty minute intermission for you to go stretch your legs, socialize, check out some of our booths, or even take a ride on the zamboni! Enjoy!"

As Lily walked back off the stage and the dim lighting brightened up a bit, the crowd began to move around and become much more lively.

Ariel stood up from her seat and stretched backwards. "Oh, finally, a break! Hey, now's your chance to go talk to your friends!"

Wyatt stood up, hesitatingly. "Oh. Yeah. I'll, uh, go do that now..."

Wyatt began to plow his way to the front of the theater, where the four friends were sitting and discussing the performances so far. He hoped they would go for this whole letting-Ariel's-sister-win thing.

"Oh, hey guys!" Wyatt exclaimed as he approached the four.

Jen looked up from her rather detailed notes and smiled. "Hey Wyatt! Are you enjoying the show?"

"Yeah...listen, can I ask you guys for a favor? It's nothing too big, really."

"Of course!" Jen mused. "What is it?"

"Well, see..." Wyatt sauntered over closer to the table, positioning himself in between Jen and Jonesy. "You know how I'm here with Ariel?"

Jonesy finally decided to look up from counting more of the money. "Yeah dude! Nice catch, by the way. She is _hot!_"

"Uh, thanks. Well anyways, her sister is competing in the contest, and she _really_ wants her to win. Like _really_. And I sort of promised her that I would ask you guys to, you know, let her...win?" Wyatt managed to choke out, rather slowly.

Jen and Jonesy paused in thought.

"Please guys? I really like her and I don't want to blow my chances with her!"

"I don't know, Wyatt." Jen replied. "It wouldn't be very fair to the other contestants if we just let her automatically win like that..."

Jonesy shrugged. "Well, I think it would be fine, I mean, if she's any good anyways. Whats the loss? It would make more people happy and the other contestants wouldn't even have to know!"

Jen paused, contemplating this idea. Wyatt could feel a nervous sweat beginning to secrete from the back of his neck.

"Well, I guess it would be okay to let her win. But only if her act is good. If it's bad, people might be seriously angry..." Jen said with a smile. "What's her name?"

"Jasmine Stellerman. She's sometime after intermission."

Jonesy snorted. "Ariel and Jasmine? Do they have two other sisters named Belle and Aurora?"

Jen slapped Jonesy's arm. "Jonesy!"

"What? It's not my fault their parents went all Disney Princess on them..."

Jen rolled her eyes. Typical immature Jonesy. "Well, why don't you get back down there before she starts wondering where you went. You don't want to upset her, do you?"

Wyatt sighed with relief. "Right. Thanks guys! You're the best!"

-

Lily looked down at her cell phone. Ten minutes until the show began again. She figured she'd get the next few contestants rounded up so she could go and have a quick chat with her friends.

She sauntered up to the backstage assistant that was currently supervising things. Caitlin had left after the show began so she could meet up with a date of hers, leaving one of the managers from a local store to make sure things ran smoothly.

"Hey, I'm going to need acts fifty eight through sixty one to line up near the curtain ASAP. The show is about to resume. Make sure they have all of their props with them and makeup done, okay?"

"Oh no problem, honey!" The assistant replied in an annoying flamboyant tone, waving his hand through the air. He pulled out his list of acts, which was neatly attached to a clipboard, and a bullhorn. "Will acts fifty eight through sixty one please come forward? That's fifty eight through sixty one!"

Three girls marched forward with nervous smiles on their faces.

"Names?" The assistant asked.

"Jamie Moore."

"Madison Hill."

"Skylar Cameron."

The assistant studied his clipboard. "Okay, so that's acts fifty nine, sixty, and sixty one. Where's fifty eight? Candace Tanner?"

"We're not sure." One of the girls replied. "We haven't seen her around for over an hour."

The assistant sighed and pulled up his bullhorn. "Will Candace Tanner please come to the curtain? Candace Tanner!"

Nothing.

Lily sighed. "Did you guys see her earlier? Did she go off with a parent or anything? Or did she just leave? We have responsibility over these girls you know!"

The three girls shrugged.

"Great. Just great." Lily mumbled. "I'll be right back."

Lily shuffled towards the back door, letting herself in with the rather hectic audience. She plowed her way through the crowd and managed to get herself to the judge's table, only tripping once or twice in her large heels.

"Guys, we have a problem!" Lily exclaimed as she approached the judge's table.

Jen popped her head up from the chat the four judges had been having, huddled up. "Hey, Lily! What's the problem?"

"One of the girls is missing...and she's up next!"

Jonesy popped his head up. "So what? Just skip her and go on to the next act!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "No! You don't understand! We're supposed to be responsible for these girls! If people realize we lost her, we could get sued! Like big time! All this effort and we would _lose_ money..."

Jude's eyes widened. "Whoaaaaaaa, brah, that's not good!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Oh, really now?"

"Did you ask Caitlin where she was? I'm sure she'll know, since she's watching things backstage and stuff." Nikki chimed in.

"Well, no, Caitlin isn't..."

"See? Look, I'll just go backstage and talk to her. I'll just question her on where she last saw her and ask around, and I'm sure we'll find her in time."

"Uh, I can do it, you know..." Lily murmured.

Nikki rolled her eyes. "Obviously not, if you're coming and asking for our help. Just let me handle things." Nikki popped out of her chair and began charging towards the stage door, rather angrily.

Lily scrunched up her nose. "What's her problem?"

Jen giggled. "Oh she's just annoyed with the contest. Watching a bunch of tweens hop around on stage for a few hours is not quite her idea of fun."

"I can tell...but really, she doesn't have to be so grumpy about it..."

Jen waved her hand into the air. "Oh she'll get over it. The show's about to resume...you should probably head backstage."

Lily looked down at her cell phone. She only had about three minutes before the show began. She hoped Nikki could find Candace in time.

-

"Hello, Caitlin? Where are you? Caitlin?!" Nikki attempted to shout over the restless girls running around backstage.

Nikki noticed a man wearing a headset standing near the curtain.

_There! I bet he knows something._

"Um, excuse me, sir..." Nikki muttered as she approached the man. She was quickly cut off.

"Oh, Candace, there you are! Let me tell you, you gave us all a _huge_ heart attack there for a few minutes. Thank god you showed up!"

Nikki waved her hands. "Oh, no, I'm not..."

The man grabbed Nikki shoulders. "Now I know you might be nervous but don't try and fake your identity just to get out if it. You'll do _fine_, I promise!"

The man pulled Nikki back a little, studying her. "This punk look has _got_ to go. You wouldn't want to scare away the audience, would you?"

Nikki attempted to pull away, but his grip was too strong. "No! I'm not Candace! You have the wrong..."

"Here!" The man pulled out a blonde wig. "This will work in a pinch!" He slapped the wig onto Nikki's hair, which was already tied up into a loose bun.

Nikki studied the ends of her "hair". "A Hannah Montana wig? Seriously?"

The man grabbed Nikki's shoulders and forced her body to face him. "The makeup is tacky. You'd do so much better with the natural look, hon. Here..." The man licked his thumb and began vigorously rubbing over Nikki's eyelids.

"What are you doing?!" Nikki screamed as she began to back away.

The man put his hands down and studied Nikki. Her eye makeup was smeared all over her eyes, nose, and eyebrows.

"Ooh, I probably should have gotten the eye makeup remover. Let me go get that real quick..."

Nikki groaned. This was _not _happening.

"Hello, ladies and gentlemen! I hope you enjoyed your intermission! Now it's time to get things rolling and show more talent!"

The crowd began cheering.

The man stopped in his tracks and turned back around. "We don't have time to fix your makeup!" he whispered. "You're just going to have to go out there!"

"But I'm not..." Nikki attempted. The man shushed her, grabbed her shoulders, and led her towards the curtain.

"Up next we have Candace Tanner, who is fourteen years old, performing an interpretive dance to Cash Cash's Party in Your Bedroom. Candace has been dancing in her interpretive troop for many years now, and is excited to show off her skills tonight. Let's give it up for Candace!"

Lily paused on stage, hoping Candace would show up. Nothing.

Finally, after a few minutes, a blonde girl was pushed onto the stage, looking rather angry, with extremely messed up makeup. Lily approached the girl, getting a closer look. As she got closer, the girl looked more and more familiar, until it finally clicked in Lily's head.

"Nikki?!"

Nikki groaned. "Don't even ask."

"Well, go! Do something! Don't just stand there!"

"What am I..."

"Go!"

Nikki sighed. She had no choice. The crowd was getting restless and she couldn't let them wait any longer. She shuffled towards the center of the stage, with a nervous grin pasted on her face.

Music began blaring from the speakers, causing Nikki to jump back a little.

_THERE'S A PARTY IN YOUR BEDROOM, ALL NIGHT LONG!_

Nikki winced at the song's bubbly, overly poppy tune.

_THERE'S A PARTY IN YOUR BEDROOM, ALL NIGHT LONG,_

_THERE'S A LOT OF TALK ABOUT YOU!_

Nikki stood frozen, absolutely speechless.

From the corner of her eye she could see Lily, standing by the curtain, making motions with her hands telling her to do something. Nikki shot her a glare.

"Just do something! Anything!" Lily shouted across the stage.

"Uh..." Nikki managed to spit out. She did a dance-y sort of walk down the stage and struck a pose.

Lily rolled her eyes. "Better than that, stupid!"

Nikki groaned. She was just about fed up with this contest. She angrily stomped towards Lily, hands flying everywhere as she allowed her pent-up annoyance to escape her.

"What are you doing? Get back out there!" Lily whisper-shouted as Nikki "danced" her way to the back of the stage. Lily forcefully shoved her back out. "Just start spinning in circles or something!"

Nikki did as Lily said. She held her arms out and began rapidly spinning in circles. She kept this up for a good thirty seconds or so before bumping in to the other side of the curtain.

_Just keep going. How long can this song be?_

Nikki stepped back out and began skipping with a huge, cheesy grin on her face. She kept going and going until the song _finally_ stopped. She rolled her eyes and stomped off the stage, glad to get off of there.

When she made it backstage, she noticed Lily, staring wide eyed, and a slight applause coming from the audience.

"That was...wow." Lily remarked.

"I know. I figured I might as well try and look tacky while I'm out there. Did I do a good job of it?"

Lily rolled her eyes and giggled. "It wasn't _that_ bad. Just different. _Really_ different."

Nikki snorted and ripped off her wig. "Whatever. At least it's over. I just can't believe bozo over there actually thought I was a performer. I mean, didn't he watch you introduce the judges?"

"He didn't even show up until half an hour into the show. We had to call one of the members of the lighting crew to come watch things, and trust me, that did _not_ go over well! He kept flirting with the girls, and they all ended up getting into a fight over him!"

Nikki giggled. "I can see why you got the gay guy!"

"Yeah..." Lily took a look at Nikki's face. "You should get some makeup remover. No offense, but, you look awful!"

"I know, I know. I'll go wash my face, brush my hair, and head back to the judge's table before they send a search warrant for me."

Lily took a quick peek out the curtain. "You might want to hurry. They're already sporting curious faces. I've got to go introduce the next act, so, I'll see you after the show?"

"Yeah, okay." Nikki walked away towards the little makeup station they had set up. She thumbed around inside and found a small bottle of makeup remover. "Perfect!"

After she managed to get herself looking presentable, Nikki began to head for the exit, until a familiar flamboyant man stopped her right at the door.

"And where do you think you're going?"

Nikki rolled her eyes. "I'm done now. So, I'm leaving, okay?"

"No, ma'am! You must stay until the end of the show just like everybody else! And I've got an extra eye on you. Now get back there with everybody else!"

"But-"

"NOW!"

Nikki groaned in defeat and sat herself in one of the chairs provided. She noticed the clones in the opposite corner.

"Oh my god, Chrissy! You're up soon!"

"I know, I'm so nervous! I've never actually sang in front of a crowd before! What if they think I'm bad?"

"Awww, don't worry! I bet the audience will love you!"

"Yeah! And then you'll be Zamboni Girl!"

"EEEEEE!"

Nikki groaned, putting her head in her hands.

_This is the worst night of my life!_

-

Jen gave a dreamy sigh as Candace stomped off the stage. She had never been so impressed with an act before. She could practically feel each emotion conveyed as it was shown.

"Guys, I really like her! I think she should win!" Jen whispered to Jonesy and Jude.

Jonesy cringed. "Why? All she did was hop around on stage to some poppy song!"

Jen rolled her eyes. "Don't you get it? The song represented the bubbly cover she must put on daily for her peers, when underneath is a wide array of emotions that constantly run through her. Anger, fear, happiness, silliness... the basic emotions felt by a budding teen!"

Jonesy began laughing. "Okay, seriously? I think you're over analyzing it. To me, it looked like some random girl running in circles on stage."

"That's because you're too shallow to understand!"

"Okay, I am not the only one who thought that act was the stupidest thing I've ever seen! Just ask Jude!"

Jen turned around, facing Jude instead of Jonesy. "So, Jude, what did you think of Candace?"

Jude stared into space, seemingly unable to hear Jen.

"Jude?"

Silence.

Jen rolled her eyes and began violently shaking him. "JUDE!"

"Whoaaaaaaa, what, brah?"

"What did you think of that last act? With Candace?"

"The girl with the freaky makeup?"

"Yeah, her."

"She...was....AWESOME!"

Jen turned back around and smirked at Jonesy. "See? You're just being narrow!"

Jonesy rolled his eyes. "Whatever. It's not like we're going to pick her as the winner or anything. We have to pick Jasmine, remember?"

"Well, if Jasmine is bad..."

"No! We are _not_ picking that freaky chick!"

Jen pointed to Jude and smiled. "I think two beats one!"

"Oh yeah! I bet Nikki wouldn't want her to win, either! Right, Nikki?" He turned himself around to face Nikki, only to see her chair empty. "Nikki?"

Jen leaned her body over and noticed Nikki's empty chair. "Where did she go? Didn't she come back from backstage?"

Jonesy shrugged. "Eh. She probably just went for a bathroom break, or just went to go get away from all the hype. She'll be back soon."

Jen sighed. "If you say so..."

-

"Wyatt! Wyatt! Guess what!" Ariel shouted as she shook him by his arm. "Jasmine is up next! Be sure to pay attention!"

Wyatt pulled his arm free from Ariel's grip. "Relax! I know! I'm watching, don't worry!"

Ariel smiled. "You told your friends to pick her, right?"

"Of course!"

The surrounding applause died down and Lily paced onto the stage yet again. "Up next is Jasmine Stellerman, who is twelve years old, performing a dance to an untitled song. Jasmine has been dancing for a long time now and is a huge Zamboni Dude fan. She can't wait to show off her skills! Let's give it up for Jasmine!"

Odd, Indian sounding music began playing as the audience clapped wildly. A young, awkward looking girl with frizzy blonde hair, glasses, and huge, puke-green braces stepped onto the stage.

"Looks like Ariel stole all the looks in the family!" Wyatt quietly muttered to himself.

"What was that?" Ariel asked innocently.

"Oh, uh, nothing. Don't pay attention to me, pay attention to your sister!" Wyatt exclaimed.

Jasmine began "dancing" extremely off beat. As in, occasionally sticking her foot out with random goofy faces, and then proceeding to do random jumps in the air before landing on her head about thirty seconds in, causing the entire audience to "ooh!". She stood up, blushed, and ran offstage.

Ariel stood up and began clapping rather hard. "Woohoo! Go Jasmine! You did great!"

Wyatt laughed nervously. "Yeah. Go Jasmine."

Ariel sat back down. "She did great, didn't she?"

Wyatt looked at his nails, avoiding eye contact. He knew his friends wouldn't pick her, and he and Ariel would be through. "Uh, yeah. She did. She'll be a great Zamboni Girl..."

Ariel squealed. "Oh, I know! I can't wait!"

Wyatt took a deep breath and stared at the ceiling, hoping with all his might that his friends would be understanding and let Jasmine be Zamboni Girl. They could always do it honestly next year, right?

-

"And that rounds up all the talent for tonight!" Lily announced. The crowd began cheering their loudest.

"Please, take this next fifteen minutes to further explore all of the booths we have to offer, and socialize with your friends, as our judges make the decision! That's right! We're only fifteen minutes away from knowing the winner of tonight's contest!"

More cheering.

"So, I'm sure you've had enough of me talking. Go on and enjoy yourselves!"

As the lights in the building came back up, Jen motioned for Jonesy and Jude to turn in towards her.

"So, since Jasmine was really bad, I think Candace should win. Simple as that."

Jonesy began waving his hands. "Whoa whoa whoa what? So jumping in the air is considered 'bad' but running in circles is 'good'? In that case, I think Jasmine did good, too!"

"You're just saying that because you don't want Candace to win!"

"Am not! I think she actually did pretty okay. And we'd be helping a friend by picking her!"

"People would get _mad_ if we picked her! And then they would know we cheated!"

"Says who? Maybe we're just 'into weird talents'."

"Jonesy!"

"Jen!"

Jude threw his hands up our of frustration. "Dudes! For Pete's sake! Just flip a coin!"

Jen shrugged. "I can live with that."

Jonesy dug through his jeans and pulled out a coin. "Fine. If it lands on heads, Candace wins, if it lands on tails, Jasmine wins. Deal?"

"Deal!"

-

"Lily? Lily!" The assistant called from the door of the stage.

Lily skipped over to the door and smiled. "Yeah?"

The assistant pulled out an envelope. "Here is the winner of the contest. Can you keep it safe until it's time to announce the winner?"

Lily nodded. "Of course!" She grabbed the envelope and studied the sticker that sealed it closed, looking for a place to rip it open. The assistant lightly slapped her wrist.

"Not yet! You have to open it onstage! There's more suspense that way!"

"But I want to know who won!" Lily pouted.

The assistant shrugged. "We'll all find out when you open that envelope. Don't worry, it will only be about five more minutes. You can wait, can't you?"

Lily grunted. "I guess..."

"Great! Now let me make sure all of the talent can sit themselves as close to the stage as possible so they hear the results!" The assistant walked away, leaving Lily alone with the envelope.

"So, what's that?" Lily heard Nikki ask from behind her. She turned herself around and flashed the envelope.

"The winner of the contest!"

"Ooh, who is it?" Nikki asked. "And how come the other three didn't come searching for me?"

Lily shrugged, laughing slightly at the fact that Nikki had been locked back here for a few hours. "They probably assumed you fell asleep somewhere or something. I don't know. And I don't get to know the winner until I open the envelope onstage. I'm just as curious as everybody else."

"Yeah, because I'm just _dying_ to know!" Nikki retorted sarcastically. She sauntered over towards the snack box and pulled out a bag of potato chips. "Whatever. I'm just glad this night is almost over. I can't believe I agreed to do this!"

"Awww, you don't think it's been just a little fun?"

"You're kidding, right?"

"Okay, all contestants near the curtain at once!" The assistant's voiced boomed from his bullhorn. He glared at Nikki. "And that means you, too, _Candace_! Put your wig back on in case you have to go on stage again!" He tossed her the Hannah Montana wig. Nikki groaned and slipped it over her bun.

Lily snorted, trying really hard not to burst out laughing. "Is that a _Hannah Montana_ wig?"

Nikki twisted the ends of her "hair". "More like a cheap knockoff. But sure."

"Well, you heard the man, get over there! In case you win!"

Nikki glanced at the ceiling and snort-laughed. "Yeah right! I think the clones have a better chance of winning than I do!"

The two girls strolled towards the curtain. Nikki took a seat behind her fellow contestants while Lily grabbed her microphone and took a deep breath.

"Okay, Lily, the crowd is making their way back to their seats. I think it's time to go announce the winner!" The assistant exclaimed with an excited smile on his face.

Lily put her thumb up and strolled back onto the stage. The lights began to dim, and the crowd began cheering once more.

"Okay, guys, it's the time you've all been waiting for! We will be announcing the winner of the Zamboni Girl contest! The winner, which is named in this envelope..." Lily circled her hand around the envelope for effect. "will get glorious title of Zamboni Girl for a whole year as well as a free date with Zamboni Dude himself!"

Cheers erupted from the crowd. They were starting to give Lily a headache.

"And, in case anybody missed it, here are the judges that made this decision!"

If there was anything Lily had learned from reality T.V, it was to keep the suspense going by stalling from announcing the winner as long as she could before people got mad. She could see some people in the crowd leaning in, as if beckoning her to continue. She was doing perfect.

"Jen...Jonesy...and Zamboni Dude himself! We had a fourth judge, but she, uh...mysteriously...disappeared. Yeah. So, let's give it up for our three judges who came to this decision tonight!"

Lily let out a small groan from the back of her mouth as the crowd cheered some more.

"So, without further ado, let's announce the winner! Drum roll please!"

Dramatic drumming poured out from the speakers as the lights dimmed slightly, keeping the suspense.

Lily quickly tore open the envelope and read the name silently. She tried with all her might not to show any emotion whilst reading. She quickly snapped her head back up and smiled.

"The winner of our first annual Zamboni Girl contest is...."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**A/N: Ooh! Suspense!  
****I already have the ending in mind, but tell me: who do YOU think should win Zamboni Girl?**


	5. Part Four

**A/N: Uhh...not much to say. Besides that this is the LAST chapter (yay!) and it's short...enjoy!**

**Oh, and I don't own anything. Except Lily :) **

"Candace Tanner!"

Nikki spit the potato chips she had been eating all over the floor out of shock. "What?!"

The assistant grinned. "See, Candace? Aren't you glad you stuck around?"

"But...no...this is....this can't be right!"

The assistant paced next to Nikki and grabbed her by the shoulders. "You heard your name, didn't you? Now go out there!"

The assistant began pushing Nikki by her shoulders. She flipped the balls of her feet up, causing the heels of her tennis shoes to skid across the flooring.

"You have the wrong person! My name is not Candace!"

"Yeah yeah yeah. Save it. Why can't you just accept the fact that you won, dear? It's a _great_ honor!"

"But my name is..."

The assistant pushed her onto the stage rather forcefully, causing Nikki to trip forward slightly as she stumbled to the center of the stage. The applause in the crowd heightened.

Two men dressed in all black stepped onto the stage, one carrying a crown while the other carried roses for Nikki to hold. They slapped their items onto Nikki and quickly exited.

Lily grinned. "Congratulations, Ni...I mean Candace!" She bit her lower lip, trying really hard not to laugh. She stepped next to Nikki. "Why don't you give a short speech accepting this _fantastic _reward?" Lily handed Nikki the microphone.

Nikki cupped her hand over the top of the microphone. "What am I supposed to say?"

Lily shrugged. "Just don't embarrass yourself. Try to seem genuine!"

Nikki sighed and lifted the microphone to her lips. "Uh, thanks, judges. I uh, worked, really hard on my...act...I hope you all enjoyed it...uh...yeah...uh....and..."

Lily smiled and put her thumb up.

"So...yeah...uh..." Nikki paused and let out a huge groan. "Okay, I can't do this anymore!"

Nikki ripped off her wig forcefully, causing the crown to fall and bounce a couple of inches beside her.

"It's me, Nikki, you know, one of the judges?"

Silence.

Lily gritted her teeth together. "Nikki! Be careful what you say..."

Nikki disregarded Lily. "Look, during the intermission I went backstage to find the _real_ Candace, who left without any warning of any sort. When I went back there some idiot assistant assumed I was the missing Candace and forced me into a wig and crappy makeup without even asking me. So. Yeah."

More silence. The audience seemed unwilling to take in this information.

Nikki sighed. "Look, you know what?" Nikki stomped backstage and grabbed the first person she could get a hold of. Kristen. She dragged her back onto the stage, picked up the fallen crown, and placed it on her head.

"I, uh, forfeit my winning title and hereby declare this girl the winner! Have fun!" Nikki announced before running offstage.

Lily glanced quizzically at the judges. "Uh, is she allowed to do that?"

Jonesy shrugged. "No rule that says she can't!" he shouted.

Lily grinned and picked up the microphone that Nikki had carelessly tossed aside. "Well in that case, our winner of the first annual Zamboni Girl contest is..." Lily quickly glanced at the random girl Nikki had thrown on stage. "Kristen! Or Kirsten. I'm honestly not sure...uh..." Lily handed Kristen the microphone. "Just give your speech."

Kristen began squealing and jumping up and down. "Oh my god! This is soooo, like, awesome! I've always wanted to win something like this. I want to thank my parents. They've been at my side since I was like, born. And I want to thank Kirsten, my best friend and Chrissy, my other best friend. They've been here for me no matter _what._ It all began at the Khaki Barn five years ago. Like, back then I was a _huge_ nerd and they pulled me aside and told me so and gave me a makeover. It was then that I began memorizing the Khaki Barn handbook from the cover to the..."

Lily stepped back onto the stage and grabbed the microphone from Kristen. "Okay, okay, I think they've heard enough. So, now that we've picked our Zamboni Girl, she will be seated towards the front of the theater for autographs, pictures, questions, anything! So enjoy yourselves and thanks for coming tonight!"

The crowd began clapping and began to start moving slowly towards the front of the theater.

Lily stepped over to Kristen, who had a huge smile plastered to her face. "There's a cushion-y chair and a table at the front of the theater. Go sit in there and look like a star, okay? Can you handle things?"

Kristen waved her hand in the air. "Oh of course! Eeeee! This is wonderful! Thanks, Lily!"

Lily shrugged. "Don't thank me! Thank Nikki..."

-

Ariel gasped loudly as Lily announced Kristen as the winner. Her face began to turn several shades of deep red.

"Oh dear god..." Wyatt muttered to himself. "I hope this doesn't get too ugly..."

"WYATT!" Ariel fumed. "What was that?! WHAT WAS THAT?!"

"I...uhh..."

"You SAID that Jasmine would win! I thought you talked to your friends!"

"I did! They said they would pick her if she did a good job!"

Ariel glared at Wyatt. "Are you saying Jasmine did _bad?_"

"Well...no..."

"Wyatt! This was so selfish of you! Do you know how badly my sister wanted to win? And you had to go and make up some stupid lie to impress me when I honestly though my own sister had a chance of winning!"

"Look!" Wyatt stood up defiantly. "I actually did talk to my friends, okay? I can't help that your sister sucked so badly! And it's just a stupid contest! Get over it!"

Ariel began foaming at the mouth, too angry to even speak. She made a sort of "urg" sound, took the lid off her soda, and spilled it over Wyatt's head before storming off.

Wyatt studied a strand of his hair, which was slowly frizzing up to it's normal, poofy state, thanks to the moisture from the soda. He sighed and began to venture towards his friends.

As he approached the front of the theater, he noticed Caitlin with her arm wrapped around some guy's waist, as usual. Nikki and Lily were toying around with the Hannah Montana wig, Jen and Jude were counting money, and Jonesy was leaned up against Kristen, who was signing autographs.

"So, about that date thing...when do you..."

Kristen slapped her hand up to Jonesy's mouth, not even bothering to turn around and look at him. "Oh don't worry about it. I'm not going on a date with _him. _I just wanted the fame!"

Jonesy shrugged his shoulders. "Fine by me." He turned around and began walking back to the gang when he noticed Wyatt, with his hair frying up. He grimaced slightly.

"Dude, what happened to your hair?" Jonesy asked. The rest of the gang looked up and watched Wyatt's hair slowly grow to it's normal size.

Wyatt groaned. "Ariel got mad and dumped soda over my head."

Jen brought her nails to her mouth. "I'm so sorry Wyatt! If I had known it was Nikki under that wig...and that _this_ would happen..."

Jonesy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, it was Jen's idea to elect...uh....'Candace'...I chose Jasmine, though. We flipped a coin and she won. So blame her, not me!"

Wyatt chuckled. "It's okay guys, really. She was starting to creep me out a little, anyways."

Caitlin giggled. "Well that's good! Man, having _Nikki _being chosen was hilarious! Totally worth it all!"

Lily sat herself on the stage and began tugging at her shoe. "Yeah, it was _so_ hard not to laugh when I read the name! I probably could've told the assistant it was Nikki all along, but I wanted to see what would happen..."

Nikki rolled her eyes. "Gee, thanks!"

"Guys, come look at this!" Jen waved her calculator. The gang huddled close to her.

"Okay, so with the ticket sales plus the booths set up minus the expenses plus paying some of the crew gives us with a net profit of..." Jen hit 'enter' on the calculator. "two thousand, two hundred and fifty dollars!"

Jude's eyes widened. "Duuuuude... are you serious?"

Jen grinned. "Yepp! We had a big audience! So divide that by six and that gives each of us....three hundred and fifty dollars!"

The gang began a series of cheering and high-fives. Wyatt looked at his nails. This just worsened his day.

Lily noticed Wyatt's glum look and smiled. "Hey guys, why don't we go out for some late night dinner at that new Chinese place they opened across the street? It's _really_ good! And I'll cover you Wyatt, since I've got plenty of cash now!"

Wyatt's face lit up. "That sounds like fun!"

The others nodded in agreement.

Jude rolled his skateboard out from under the table. "I'll meet you dudes and dudettes there!"

Lily beamed. "Ooh! Can I ride with you?"

"Sure thing, brah!"

Lily hopped onto the skateboard and the two of them rode away.

Caitlin poked her date's stomach. "Hey, do you want to come with us? My treat!"

Her date smiled. "Sounds like fun. How are we going to get there, though?"

Jen shrugged. "We could just walk..."

Nikki snorted. "Sounds good to me!"

The gang wrapped arms and began walking out of the theater, attempting to dodge the screaming fans along the way. Once they made it out of the theater, however, they began to hear strange sounds coming from across the hall.

The gang glanced over and noticed a couple passionately making out in front of the men's restroom.

Caitlin scrunched up her nose. "What a gross place to make out! Seriously..."

The guy pulled away from the girl and smiled. "Wow, Candace, you're really amazing! I'm so glad you ditched that stupid Zamboni Girl contest."

Candace smiled. "I know. I bet they're running around looking for me. Whatever. It's stupid, anyways."

Nikki stopped the group and widened her eyes. "Did she just say she was..."

Jonesy began laughing. "I think we found Candace, guys."

Nikki pulled herself away from the group and began storming at the couple. Her eyes were watering from rage.

"YOU LITTLE BRAT!"

Caitlin chuckled. "Guys, should we do something about this? That girl could seriously get hurt..."

Jen waved her hand into the air. "Nah. Let her get her anger out. Plus, that Candace girl deserves it for ditching like that, don't you guys think?"

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT I HAD TO DO FOR YOU? ALL BECAUSE YOU WANTED TO MAKE OUT WITH YOUR BOYFRIEND?!"

"Actually, we're not..." Candace shyly attempted to say.

Nikki let out a roar and began attacking Candace.

The date widened his eyes. "Wow...who know Nikki could be so...tough?"

The entire gang laughed as they watched Nikki kick and scream at the poor girl.

Jen coughed, inhibiting her laughter so she could speak. "So, maybe this night was long and crazy, but overall, I think this will be a night we'll never forget!"

XXXXXXXXXXX

**A/N: Wooohoo! It's FINISHED! Exciting, right?**

**So, I'm thinking I should keep these Lily stories going...since this one was so much fun to write. What do you guys think? REVIEW :)**


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